Chapter 3. Karma-yoga
Chapter 3, Verse
1.
 Arjuna
said: O Janardana, O Kesava, why do You urge me to engage in this ghastly
warfare, if You think that intelligence is better than fruitive work?
Chapter 3, Verse
2.
My intelligence
is bewildered by Your equivocal instructions. Therefore, please tell me
decisively what is most beneficial for me.
Chapter 3, Verse
3.
The Blessed
Lord said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two
classes of men who realize the Self. Some are inclined to understand Him
by empirical, philosophical speculation, and others are inclined to know
Him by devotional work.
Chapter 3, Verse
4.
Not by
merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor
by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.
Chapter 3, Verse
5.
All men
are forced to act helplessly according to the impulses born of the modes
of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something,
not even for a moment.
Chapter 3, Verse
6.
One who
restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense
objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.
Chapter 3, Verse
7.
On the
other hand, he who controls the senses by the mind and engages his active
organs in works of devotion, without attachment, is by far superior.
Chapter 3, Verse
8.
Perform
your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot
even maintain his physical body without work.
Chapter 3, Verse
9.
Work
done as a sacrifice for Visnu has to be performed, otherwise work binds
one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed
duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached
and free from bondage.
Chapter 3, Verse
10.
In the
beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations
of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them
by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance
will bestow upon you all desirable things."
Chapter 3, Verse
11.
The demigods,
being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you; thus nourishing one
another, there will reign general prosperity for all.
Chapter 3, Verse
12.
In charge
of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the
performance of yajna [sacrifice], supply all necessities to man. But he
who enjoys these gifts, without offering them to the demigods in return,
is certainly a thief.
Chapter 3, Verse
13.
The devotees
of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which
is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense
enjoyment, verily eat only sin.
Chapter 3, Verse
14.
All living
bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are
produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed
duties.
Chapter 3, Verse
15.
Regulated
activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested
from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading
Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.
Chapter 3, Verse
16.
My dear
Arjuna, a man who does not follow this prescribed Vedic system of sacrifice
certainly leads a life of sin, for a person delighting only in the senses
lives in vain.
Chapter 3, Verse
17.
One who
is, however, taking pleasure in the self, who is illuminated in the self,
who rejoices in and is satisfied with the self only, fully satiated--for
him there is no duty.
Chapter 3, Verse
18.
A self-realized
man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties,
nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to
depend on any other living being.
Chapter 3, Verse
19.
Therefore,
without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a
matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.
Chapter 3, Verse
20.
Even
kings like Janaka and others attained the perfectional stage by performance
of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people
in general, you should perform your work.
Chapter 3, Verse
21.
Whatever
action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps.
And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.
Chapter 3, Verse
22.
O son
of Prtha, there is no work prescribed for Me within all the three planetary
systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I need to obtain anything--and
yet I am engaged in work.
Chapter 3, Verse
23.
For,
if I did not engage in work, O Partha, certainly all men would follow My
path.
Chapter 3, Verse
24.
If I
should cease to work, then all these worlds would be put to ruination.
I would also be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would
thereby destroy the peace of all sentient beings.
Chapter 3, Verse
25.
As the
ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, similarly the
learned may also act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people
on the right path.
Chapter 3, Verse
26.
Let not
the wise disrupt the minds of the ignorant who are attached to fruitive
action, they should not be encouraged to refrain from work, but to engage
in work in the spirit of devotion.
Chapter 3, Verse
27.
The bewildered
spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature,
thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried
out by nature.
Chapter 3, Verse
28.
One who
is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage
himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences
between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.
Chapter 3, Verse
29.
Bewildered
by the modes of material nature, the ignorant fully engage themselves in
material activities and become attached. But the wise should not unsettle
them, although these duties are inferior due to the performers' lack of
knowledge.
Chapter 3, Verse
30.
Therefore,
O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with mind intent on Me,
and without desire for gain and free from egoism and lethargy, fight.
Chapter 3, Verse
31.
One who
executes his duties according to My injunctions and who follows this teaching
faithfully, without envy, becomes free from the bondage of fruitive actions.
Chapter 3, Verse
32.
But those
who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not practice them regularly,
are to be considered bereft of all knowledge, befooled, and doomed to ignorance
and bondage.
Chapter 3, Verse
33.
Even
a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows
his nature. What can repression accomplish?
Chapter 3, Verse
34.
Attraction
and repulsion for sense objects are felt by embodied beings, but one should
not fall under the control of senses and sense objects because they are
stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.
Chapter 3, Verse
35.
It is
far better to discharge one's prescribed duties, even though they may be
faultily, than another's duties. Destruction in the course of performing
one's own duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow
another's path is dangerous.
Chapter 3, Verse
36.
Arjuna
said: O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even
unwillingly, as if engaged by force?
Chapter 3, Verse
37.
The Blessed
Lord said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material
modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring,
sinful enemy of this world.
Chapter 3, Verse
38.
As fire
is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is
covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different
degrees of this lust.
Chapter 3, Verse
39.
Thus,
a man's pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form
of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
Chapter 3, Verse
40.
The senses,
the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust, which
veils the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.
Chapter 3, Verse
41.
Therefore,
O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol
of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge
and self-realization.
Chapter 3, Verse
42.
The working
senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence
is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the
intelligence.
Chapter 3, Verse
43.
Thus
knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence,
one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus--by spiritual
strength--conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.
  
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