CHAPTER
3: THE YOGA OF ACTION
On mastering the
intelligence
(1)
Arjuna said: 'If being intelligent is considered better
than doing fruitive work, as You said o Janârdana,
then why are You engaging me in this ghastly action
Kes'ava? (2)
Surely you are confusing my intelligence with your
equivocal words, therefore please make sure you tell me
of one only so that I may really benefit from it'
.
(3)
The Supreme Lord said: 'In this world there are two kinds
of faith, as I told you before o sinless one, it is the
linking of oneself in the knowledge of the analytic mind
and the connectedness in action as practiced by the
devoted. (4)
Nor by forsaking work does a man attain to liberation nor
does he attain to success by simply renouncing.
(5)
Surely no one is but for a moment without action and
certainly everyone is irresistibly drawn to fruitive work
according the qualities born from the modes of nature.
(6)
Anyone who, controlling the senses, in his mind keeps
thinking on the sense-objects is a foolish soul called a
pretender. (7)
But one who, regulating the senses with his mind, o
Arjuna, makes a beginning with connecting his senses in
working without the attachment of desiring the fruits -
he is by far the better. (8)
Do your prescribed duties, as working for certain is
better than not to work - even your bodily maintenance is
never without the effect of work. (9)
Work for the
purpose of sacrifice, otherwise work in this world will
bind you. Work done for that sake, o son of Kuntî,
will liberate you perfectly from that association.
(10)
In the coming about in the beginning of the generations
along with the sacrifices, the Lord of mankind said to
this: 'Be more and more prosperous; may this bestow upon
you all that you desire'. (11)
Having pleased the godly by sacrifices, the godly will
please you and thus mutually pleasing one another you
will achieve the Supreme. (12)
The gods satisfied by sacrifice will surely award you
with the necessities of life, but he who enjoys the
things given without offering is certainly a thief.
(13)
Eating of the sacrifices the devoted find relief of all
kinds of sin, but the impious who consider just to please
their senses only eat of trouble. (14)
From grains material bodies grow, from rains there is the
production of grains while rains become possible with the
sacrifices that are performed out of duty.
(15)
Ones duty is
realized through the culture of knowledge while the
regulation of that knowledge is of the Supreme, therefore
in sacrifice one will always find the all-pervading
spirit.
(16)
Thus it is so that one who in his life does not adopt
this regular order as established in the Vedas, will lead
a useless life full of sin and sense-gratification.
(17)
But one who takes pleasure in the soul surely remains a
self-realized man contented in himself only and freed
from obligations. (18)
Certainly never his doing or not doing in this world will
be for a material purpose and never will he see any
advantage in taking to the shelter of other living
beings. (19)
Therefore, do your work constantly without attachment as
a duty, because performing labor unattached certainly one
will achieve the Original Person.
(20)
For sure even kings like Janaka and others attained to
perfection through this work and also in consideration of
what the world needs you should act. (21)
Whatever that a respectable leader does is surely and
solely done for other people and whatever the example he
gives the whole world will do in following.
(22)
For Me there is no obligation of service in the three
worlds yet, indeed without wanting or desire to obtain, I
am engaged in activities also. (23)
Surely if I ever fail thus to be engaged with great care,
that path of mine all men would follow, o son of
Prithâ, in every respect. (24)
All these worlds would run into chaos if I wouldn't do My
work; I would create confusion and would destroy all
these living entities. (25)
As the ignorant do their work in attachment, o descendant
of Bharata, so the learned must act without attachment in
desiring to be the example for the common people.
(26)
He should not disturb the minds of the ignorant attached
to the fruits of labor; a wise man should, engaged in his
duty, fit all in with his work.
(27)
From all kinds of activities performed by the modes of
material nature, the self, bewildered by the
identification with the physical, thinks itself from that
the doer. (28)
But knowing the principle reality with the operating
modes, o mighty armed one, will he, who thinks that way
about the difference between the senses and their
engagement, never become attached. (29)
Bewildered by the modes of nature those persons who have
little knowledge and who are lax in selfrealization,
become entangled in material activities; they should not
be agitated by the ones who know. (30)
Therefore
dedicate all sorts of work to Me, giving up in the full
knowledge of your soul, with a consciousness free from
desiring profit and property and being thus: fight
without hesitation!
(31)
Those who follow these directions about the eternal in a
regulated manner are human beings with faith and devotion
not looking at others; all of them will become free from
even the bond of fruitive labor. (32)
But those however who do not regularly follow my
instructions out of envy are confused about all knowledge
and know them well as being lost without that servitude.
(33)
The
learned one tries according his own way the modes of
nature, nevertheless all living beings are subjected to
it - what can one expect from defeat and destruction
? (34)
The attachment and aversion of the senses to their
objects needs to be regulated as one certainly should
never come under the control of those stumbling blocks.
(35)
It is better to follow one's own nature making mistakes
than to be perfect in following an estranged course of
action; to find destruction with following one's own duty
is better than to run with an estranged sense of duty
into danger.'
(36)
Arjuna said: 'Then by what is a man impelled to sin even
if he doesn't want to, o descendant of Vrishni, as if
engaged by force?
(37)
The Supreme Lord said: 'It is lust, it is anger born from
the mode of passion which is the all-devouring greatly
sinful; know this here to be your greatest enemy.
(38)
Just like smoke covering a fire, a mirror covered with
dust and a womb enclosing an embryo, so similarly by this
lust this is covered. (39)
The knowing of the knower, covered by this eternal enemy
in the form of desire, o son of Kuntî, is just like
fire never satisfied. (40)
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are called the
stronghold of this lust which by all these clouds the
knowledge in covering the embodied. (41)
Therefore you must, regulating the senses from the
beginning, o best among the Bhâratas, curb this
drive of sin that is the destroyer of knowledge and
wisdom. (42)
The senses are above things one says and more than the
senses is the superior mind. Also above that is the
intelligence - but more than the intelligence is He who
is the beyond. (43)
Thus, superior to the intelligence, knowing from the
steadying of the mind, deliberately conquer this enemy
which, o mighty armed one, is so formidable in the form
of lust.
Spoken
by Anand Aadhar Prabhu
to the text offered below