Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3: The Yoga of Action

Arjuna had been given the deathless Self and the sage of steady wisdom, and out of all of it he had taken hold of one thread and could not let it go.

"If you hold that the understanding is better than action, Janardana, then why do you push me into this terrible work? You confuse my mind with words that seem to say two things at once. Tell me one thing, and tell me plainly, by which I may reach what is best."

"In this world," said Krishna, "I have long taught a twofold way: the yoga of knowledge for those who follow reasoning, and the yoga of action for those who follow works. They are not two goals. They are two roads that meet.

"A man does not reach freedom from action by refusing to act, and he does not rise to perfection by mere renouncing. No one can stay still even for a moment without doing something. Every man is made to act, helplessly, by the qualities born of nature. He who sits holding his hands from work while his mind goes on turning over the things of sense is deluded, and we should call him a hypocrite.

"But the man who holds his senses with his mind, Arjuna, and then sets his hands to work without attachment, he is the better man.

"Do the work that is laid on you, for action is better than inaction. If you did nothing at all, you could not even keep this body of yours alive.

"You wished to put down the bow and live on alms. Consider what that would be. Not the end of action, only the end of one action, and the beginning of another that pleased you better."

"There is one exception," Krishna said, "and you should understand it, because it is the whole of what I am telling you. This world is bound by action, except when that action is done as yajna, as sacrifice, as an offering. Therefore, son of Kunti, do your work as an offering, free from attachment.

"In the beginning the Lord of creatures sent forth mankind together with sacrifice, and said: by this shall you bring forth, let this be the cow that yields you your desires. Cherish the gods with this, and let the gods cherish you. Cherishing one another, you shall reach the highest good. The gods, nourished by sacrifice, will give you the enjoyments you long for. But the man who takes their gifts and gives nothing back is nothing but a thief.

"The good, who eat what is left over after the offering, are released from all their faults. But those who cook only for themselves, those wicked ones eat their own sin.

"Look at how the world is held. From food creatures come to be. From rain comes food. From sacrifice comes rain. Sacrifice is born of action. Action is born of Brahman, and Brahman is born of the Imperishable. So the all-pervading Brahman is forever set in the sacrifice.

"Thus the wheel is set turning, and he who does not help it turn, who lives in sin, delighting in his senses, that man lives in vain, Partha.

"Understand the word rightly. A sacrifice is not only fire and butter and chanting. Every act done for the sake of something greater than the doer's own appetite is a sacrifice, and every appetite fed for its own sake alone is a theft from the world that fed you."

"There is a man for whom none of this is needed," said Krishna. "He whose delight is in the Self alone, who is satisfied with the Self, content in the Self, for him there is nothing left that must be done. He has nothing to gain by acting and nothing to gain by not acting, and he depends on no creature anywhere for any purpose of his own.

"And yet, do you see, such men act. Therefore, without attachment, always do the work that is yours to do. The man who works without attachment reaches the Highest.

"By action alone, and by nothing else, Janaka and men like him came to perfection. That king ruled Videha and judged suits and gathered taxes and made war when he had to, and no one was ever freer than he was. He held the kingdom and the kingdom did not hold him.

"And look at Me. In all the three worlds, Partha, there is nothing I am obliged to do, nothing unattained that I need to attain. And still I work.

"For if I did not go on working, tirelessly and without rest, men would follow My path in every way, since men everywhere follow whatever the great ones do. If I stopped, these worlds would fall into ruin. I would be the maker of confusion, and I would destroy these creatures.

"Consider where I am at this moment. I hold the reins of your chariot, which is not work worthy of the least of my kinsmen. I have taken up no weapon and I will kill no man on this field. But I am here, and I am working, because the world is held together by those who do what is in front of them."

"As the ignorant act, being attached to their work," Krishna said, "so should the wise man act, but unattached, wishing to hold the world together. That holding together, lokasamgraha, is reason enough for any deed.

"Let the wise man not unsettle the minds of the ignorant who are attached to their works. Let him rather do all works himself with devotion, and so set them doing.

"Actions are wrought in every case by the qualities of nature. The man whose mind is confused by the sense of I thinks: I am the doer. But he who knows the truth about the divisions of the qualities and their working, and sees that it is the qualities acting upon the qualities, does not become attached.

"Those who are deluded by nature's qualities are bound fast to their works. Let the man who knows the whole not disturb those who know only a part.

"Give over all your actions to Me, with your mind on the Self, without hope, without any thought of what is yours, and fight, your fever gone. The men who follow this teaching of Mine with faith, without carping, are set free even by their works. But those who sneer at it and do not follow it are lost, senseless in every kind of knowledge.

"Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature. All beings follow their nature. What will repression do? Liking and disliking are seated in every sense and in every object it meets. Do not fall under the power of these two, for they lie in wait for a man.

"Better your own duty done imperfectly than another man's duty done well. Better to die in your own duty. The duty of another brings danger."

Arjuna heard him out, and asked the question of a man who has watched himself do wrong and could not explain it afterward.

"But then by what is a man driven to do evil, Varshneya, even against his own will, as though some power forced him to it?"

"It is desire," said Krishna. "It is anger, which is only desire turned back on itself. Both are born of rajas, the quality of restlessness. Desire devours everything and defiles everything. Know this to be the enemy here on earth.

"As fire is hidden by smoke, as a mirror is hidden by dust, as the unborn child is hidden by the womb, so is knowledge covered over by this. Wisdom is veiled, son of Kunti, by this constant enemy of the wise, this fire that is never satisfied, which takes the shape of desire.

"The senses, the mind and the understanding are called its seat. Through these it covers over knowledge and bewilders the dweller in the body. Therefore, bull among the Bharatas, take hold of the senses first, and then kill this thing, this destroyer of knowledge and of insight.

"They say that the senses are high, but the mind is higher than the senses, and the understanding is higher than the mind, and higher than the understanding is He.

"So, knowing what is greater than the understanding, steady yourself by the Self, and kill the enemy, mighty-armed, who wears the shape of desire and is so hard to overcome."

The dust hung over Kurukshetra, and the two armies still waited for a battle that had not begun. Arjuna, who had asked why he should act at all, had been answered with a chapter the tradition calls Karma Yoga. He had been given back his work, but not the old reasons for doing it.