Chapter Three

                        The Path of Action

                               Karma-yoga

1) Arjuna said: O Janardana, O Kesava, if You consider that
resolute and determined spiritual intelligence (vyavasayatmika
buddhi) is better than action in goodness and passion, then why do
You engage me in the violent activity of warfare?

2) My intelligence is confused by Your words. They appear to be
ambiguous, sometimes supporting action and sometimes
supporting knowledge. So please instruct me which of these two
paths is most beneficial for me.

3) The Supreme Lord replied: I have already described the two
types of faith to be found in this world. I have established that the
learned who are aware of the conscious world, and those who are
mainly active in the mundane plane, both engage in the
(rudimentary) practice of the path of devotion (sadhana bhakti-
yoga) by respectively following the path of knowledge and the
path of selfless action offered to the Lord. Actually, the staircase
leading to the land of dedication is one, while only faith is twofold,
according to the steps attained by the aspirants.

4) Without performing scripturally enjoined duties, one cannot
attain knowledge leading to freedom from action and reaction.
How can a person of impure heart obtain perfection by
abandoning his prescribed duties?

5) No one can remain without acting even for a moment. Everyone
is forced to act helplessly, stimulated by the modes of material
nature. Therefore, it is improper for a person of impure
consciousness to reject the purificatory duties prescribed by the
scriptures.

6) One who externally restrains his hands, legs, and other senses
of action, but whose mind dwells in sense objects, is a fool. Know
him as a hypocrite.

7) O Arjuna, one in married life who has controlled his senses by
the mind, and who, without attachment, has begun to perform
karma-yoga, through his working senses, is far superior to such a
hypocrite.

8) Perform your ablutions, worship, and other daily duties. Since
even bodily sustenance is not possible without action, it is better
for an unqualified person to perform his duty rather than
renounce it. By giving up fruitive action and regularly performing
your daily obligatory duties, your heart will be gradually purified.
Then, surpassing the plane of renunciation, you will attain pure
devotion, beyond the mundane plane.

9) Selfless duty performed as an offering to the Supreme Lord is
called yajna, or sacrifice. O Arjuna, all action performed for any
other purpose is the cause of bondage in this world of repeated
birth and death. Therefore, remaining unattached to the fruits of
action, perform all your duties in the spirit of such sacrifice. Such
action is the means of entering the path of devotion, and with the
awakening of true perception of the Lord, it will enable you to
attain to pure, unalloyed devotion, free from all material qualities
(nirguna-bhakti).

10) In the beginning of creation, Lord Brahma created the
populace along with sacrifices for the Supreme Lord Visnu.
Brahma instructed thus: "Taking shelter of this religious
principle of sacrifice, prosper and flourish. May this sacrifice
fulfill all your desires."

11) "Propitiate the demigods by this sacrifice and those gods, thus
pleased, may satisfy you by bestowing all your desired success. In
this way, through mutual goodwill, you will be the gainer of great
auspiciousness.

12) The demigods, who are integral parts of My external
manifestation, certainly award all your necessities, being satisfied
with the performance of sacrifice. By the grace of the demigods,
who are all under My shelter, there is sufficient rain, sunlight, and
other elements to provide ample food commodities. He who
selfishly enjoys these gifts without offering them to the gods
(generally by the five great sacrifices), incurs all the sins of a thief.

13) Virtuous souls are liberated from all sins arising from the five
different kinds of violence towards all living entities, by accepting
the remnants of foodstuffs from the five great sacrifices offered to
the universal demigods. But miscreants who prepare food for
their own gratification simply partake of sin.

14) From food, living beings arise, and from rains, food is
produced. From the performance of sacrifice, rainfall ensues, and
sacrifice is born of action.

15) Action arises from the Vedas, and the Vedas originate in
Aksara, the Infallible One. Therefore, the allpervading, infallible
Supreme Lord, is eternally situated within the acts of sacrifice
offered unto Him.

16) O Arjuna, a man in either the stage of action or knowledge
who does not follow this causal cyclic system which is directly
established by the Supreme Lord, certainly leads a sinful life.
Such a compulsive sense-enjoyer maintains his life in vain.

17) But there is no duty to fulfill for one who delights within the
self, rejoices in the self alone, and is fully self-satisfied within. He
works only for the bare necessities of bodily sustenance.

18) In this world, a self-realized person who rejoices in the soul
does not accrue piety by the performance of actions, nor does he
incur sin by abstaining from duties. Amongst all living entities,
from the highest life-forms of the planet of Lord Brahma down to
the world of immobile organisms, he never depends on anyone for
any personal demand whatsoever.

19) Therefore, giving up all attachment to the fruits of action,
always perform your prescribed activites as a matter of duty. By
the continual performance of action without attachment, a living
being attains liberation. And true liberation is the state of
exclusive devotion, attained in the ultimate maturity of selfless
action.

20) King Janaka and other learned personalities attained to
perfection in devotion by performing their prescribed duties.
Therefore, it is proper that you perform your duty for the
instruction of the masses.

21) The general masses imitate the ways of great men. They follow
whatever the great personality accepts as the right conclusion.

22) O Arjuna, I, the Supreme Lord, have no duty whatsoever in
the three worlds, since there is nothing unobtained or necessary to
be obtained by Me; and yet, personally, I am active.

23) O Arjuna, if I ever avoid activity then all men, following in My
footsteps, will give up their duties.

24) If I do not perform duties, then, following My example, all the
inhabitants of these worlds will renounce their duties and thereby
come to ruination. Thus I will be the cause of social turmoil due to
unvirtuous population, and in this way, I will be responsible for
spoiling posterity.

25) O Arjuna, as ignorant, attached persons work, the wise must
also work, but without attachment, in order to protect the
svadharma or religious principles of those who are competant to
follow the path of action. The difference is not in the actions of
these two classes of men, but in their respective attitudes of
attachment and indifference.

26) The scholarly proponents of the path of knowledge must not
confuse ignorant, attached men by deviating them with the advice,
"Leave aside action, and cultivate knowledge." Rather,
controlling their own minds, the learned should perform all the
various duties without desiring the results, and in this way,
subsequently engage the common section in action.

27) All the various activities are in every way carried out by the
(senses activated by the) modes of material nature. But a man
deluded by identifying himself with his body and its extensions
thinks, "I alone am accomplishing this."

28) However, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one who is in full
knowledge of the classification of the material modes of goodness,
passion, and ignorance, and their respective functions pertaining
to the demigods, the senses, and the sense objects he does not
falsely and egotistically assert himself as a performer of action,
knowing well that the senses (ear, skin, eye, tongue, and nose)
allotted by the controlling deities are simply engaging with their
respective desirable sense objects (sound, touch, form, taste, and
smell).

29) A person influenced by the modes of material nature is like a
man possessed by a ghost. Completely captivated, he is addicted to
sensual enjoyment of the various sense objects. One in perfect
wisdom should not agitate such ignorant, dull-brained (and
unqualified) persons by revealing philosophical truths to them.
Rather, they should instruct them in the performance of action
devoid of desire for sense enjoyment, because such action nullifies
the enchantment of the modes of nature.

30) Surrender all your activities unto Me with this understanding:
"All my actions are under the control of the indwelling Lord." In
such consciousness, free from all sense of possessiveness and
lamentation take recourse to battle (as your svadharma, natural
duty).

31) Faithful and unbegrudging men who constantly practice this
yoga path of selfless action as favored by Me, attain liberation
from the bondage of action - even though they are active.

32) However those, who, out of envy, do not follow these teachings
of Mine, are devoid of all good sense. Know such men as
completely ignorant and doomed to ruination.

33) Even a learned person tends to act according to his nature,
that is, his inherent evil inclinations. Therefore, the result of the
living beings' endeavor to act in this way is to become enslaved by
such inclinations. Then, they can no longer be disciplined by fear
of either scriptural or lawful punishments.

34) Although the senses are inevitably attracted to and repulsed
by their various respective objects, do not be subjugated by these
whims they are the greatest enemy of the candidate for self-
realization. (Devotional attachment and detachment are not
indicated herein.)

35) It is better to carry out one's own duties a little imperfectly
rather than faultlessly perform another's duties. Know that even
death is auspicious in the discharge of one's duties appropriate to
his natural position in the ordained socio-religious system,
because to pursue another's path is perilous.

Commentary: Pure devotion unto Adhoksaja, the Lord who is
beyond sensual purview, is the eternal superexcellent natural function
of the soul. Therefore, even if such a function externally appears
abominable, it is always far superior to conduct that is good in the
estimation of mundane morality, which is always prejudiced by the
material modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance. In the company
of true saints, the progressive practice of cultivation in such pure
devotion is the bestower of the ultimate merit, even if death occurs.
Since ignorance-based intuition to perform unpredictable, spurious
'good' practices remains within dvitiyabhinivesa, or absorption in any
object other than the Supreme Lord, such practices are bhayavah they
simply lead to fear.
bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad-
isad apetasya viparyayo 'smrtih
tan mayayato budha abhajet tam
bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma
(Bhag. 11.2.37)
 "Because persons who are averse to the devotional service of the
Supreme Lord have forgotten their own internal identities (as servants
of the Lord) due to the action of maya, the deluding potency of the
Lord, they remain within the false ego of considering the body as the
self. When the attention is absorbed in mundane objects to the
exclusion of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna, one experiences fear on
account of the body, family, friends, possessions, and so on.
Therefore, a person of fine intelligence will worship the Lord with
exclusive devotion, knowing the genuine guru to be non-different
from the Lord as His most beloved servant."

36) Arjuna inquired: O descendant of the Vrsnis, by whom is the
living being compelled to commit sinful activities, even against his
own will?

37) The Supreme Lord replied: Certainly it is lust, born of the
mode of passion, which induces a person to commit sin. Lust is the
basis of the desire for sense enjoyment, and in different situations
that lust becomes transformed into anger. It is utterly insatiable
and extremely malicious. Know this lust alone to be the greatest
enemy of the living being in this world.

38) As fire is thinly veiled by smoke, as a mirror is thickly covered
with dust, and as the embryo remains completely enclosed within
the womb, similarly, this lust covers the consciousness of the living
being in three degrees of intensity, according to the three modes of
material nature goodness, passion, and ignorance respectively.

39) O Arjuna, this lust with its underlying nescience is the
perpetual enemy of the man of knowledge. Like fire which is
never satisfied (by offerings of clarified butter), it covers a man's
good sense of judgement.

40) It is said that the senses, the mind, and the intelligence are the
favorite haunts of this terrible enemy known as lust. Covering the
good sense of the living being, lust beguiles him through these
channels, and hurls him down into the quagmire of gross
materialism.

41) Therefore, O noblest of the Bharatas, by first bringing your
own senses under control, openly deal the death blow to this lust,
the embodiment of sin which ruins both jnana (discriminative
knowledge of the self and non-self, as delineated in the scriptures)
and vijnana (subsequent realization in divine consciousness).

42) The learned proclaime that the senses are superior to inert
objects, the mind is superior to the senses, and the faculty of
resolute intelligence is superior to the mind. And he who is
superior to the intelligence is the soul himself.

43) O mighty Arjuna! Knowing the soul to be thus perfectly
distinct from the intelligence, steady the mind with resolute
intelligence and destroy the indomitable enemy, lust.

INDEX