The Discharge of Prescribed Duty (Karma-yoga)

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Discharge of Prescribed Duty (Karma-yoga)

अर्जुन उवाच ज्यायसी चेत्कर्मणस्ते मता बुद्धिर्जनार्दन । तत्किं कर्मणि घोरे मां नियोजयसि केशव ॥ arjuna uvaca jyayasi cet karmanas te mata buddhir janardana tat kim karmani ghore mam niyojayasi kesava (BG.3.1) •Here we are discussing the chapter three of Srimad Bhagwat Gita as it is by Srila Prabhupada.

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Arjuna said- O Janardana !

•Intelligence is better than fruitive work? •My intelligence is bewildered by Your equivocal instructions. So, please tell me decisively which will be most beneficial for me.

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Arjuna also in Krsna consciousness

Without being trained in the philosophy of Krsna consciousness, it is not advisable to chant the holy name of Krsna in a secluded place, where one may acquire only cheap adoration from the innocent public. The buddhi-yoga, or intelligence in spiritual advancement of knowledge, as something like retirement from active life and the practice of penance and austerity at a secluded place?

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Arjuna asked the best course of action

Arjuna wanted to skillfully avoid the fighting by using krishna consciousness as an excuse. But as a sincere student, he placed the matter before his master and questioned krishna as to his best course of action

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The Supreme Personality of Godhead said-

O sinless Arjuna ! •There are two classes of men who try to realize the self. Some are inclined to understand it by empirical, philosophical speculation, and others by devotional service.

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O sinless Arjuna !

•Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.

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Krishna said

•Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.

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Bhagwan said

•One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.

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Lord Krishna said

•On the other hand, if a sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-yoga [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] without attachment, he is by far superior.

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Bhagwan Krishna said

•Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work.

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O son of Kunti !

•Work done as a sacrifice for Viṣṇu has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. •So, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.

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The supreme personality said

•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 everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation.”

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Bhagwan said

•The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.

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Lord Krishna said

•In charge of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance of yajña [sacrifice], will supply all necessities to you. But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them to the demigods in return is certainly a thief.

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Krishna said

•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.

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The supreme personality of godhead said

•All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña [sacrifice], and yajña is born of prescribed duties.

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Lord Krishna said

•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.

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Krishna said, My dear Arjuna !

•one who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin. Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in vain.

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Krishna said

•But for one who takes pleasure in the Self, whose human life is one of self-realization, and who is satisfied in the Self only, fully satiated – for him there is no duty.

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Bhagwan Krishna said

•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.

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The supreme personality of godhead said

•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.

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Lord said

•Kings such as Janaka attained perfection solely by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work.

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Krishna said

•Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.

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Bhagwan said, 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 a need to obtain anything and yet I am engaged in prescribed duties.

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The supreme personality said, O Partha !

•For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, certainly all men would follow My path. •If I did not perform prescribed duties, all these worlds would be put to ruination. I would be the cause of creating unwanted population, and I would thereby destroy the peace of all living beings.

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Krishna said to Arjuna

•As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.

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Bhagwan Krishna said

•So as not to disrupt the minds of ignorant men attached to the fruitive results of prescribed duties, a learned person should not induce them to stop work. Rather, by working in the spirit of devotion, he should engage them in all sorts of activities for the gradual development of Krishna consciousness.

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Krishna said

•The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.

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Krishna said, O mighty-armed !

•One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.

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Krishna said to Arjuna

•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.

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Bhagwan said, O Arjuna !

•By surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight.

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Lord Krishna said

•Those persons who execute their duties according to My injunctions and who follow this teaching faithfully, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive actions.

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Bhagwan said

•But those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not follow them regularly are to be considered bereft of all knowledge, befooled, and ruined in their endeavors for perfection.

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Krishna said

•Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish?

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Lord Krishna said

•There are principles to regulate attachment and aversion pertaining to the senses and their objects. One should not come under the control of such attachment and aversion, because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.

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Bhagwan said

•It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than anothers duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in others duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.

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Arjuna said

O descendant of Vṛsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?

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The Supreme Personality of Godhead said-

•It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

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Lord Krishna said

•As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.

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Krishna said

•Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

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The supreme personality of godhead said

इन्द्रियाणि मनो बुद्धिरस्याधिष्ठानमुच्यते । एतैर्विमोहयत्येष ज्ञानमावृत्य देहिनम् ॥ •The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.

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O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas !

तस्मात्त्वमिन्द्रियाण्यादौ नियम्य भरतर्षभ । पाप्मानं प्रजहि ह्येनं ज्ञानविज्ञाननाशनम् ॥ •In the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin (lust) by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.

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Bhagwan said

इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः । मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥ •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.

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O mighty-armed Arjuna !

•Knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence (Krishna consciousness) and thus – by spiritual strength – conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.

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