Chapter 3

Karma (कर्म)

Why act at all, if knowledge is higher. Desire is the enemy in the way.

Summary

Chapter 3 answers why act at all if knowledge is higher. The world is held up by action. Renunciation that skips the work in front of one is not the yoga meant here. Desire and anger are named as the enemies that turn action into bondage.

नेपालीमा

अध्याय ३ ले सोध्छ, ज्ञान श्रेष्ठ भए कर्म किन गर्ने? संसार कर्मले नै धानिएको छ। सामुन्नेको काम छोडेर गरिने संन्यास यहाँ भनिएको योग होइन। इच्छा र क्रोधलाई यस्ता शत्रु भनिन्छ जसले कर्मलाई बन्धन बनाउँछन्।

1–8 Arjuna (अर्जुन), श्रीभगवान् Śrī Bhagavān · Two stances

Summary

Arjuna hears a contradiction. If insight is better, why this terrible action? Two stances are named. The yoga of knowledge and the yoga of action. No one remains without acting even for a moment. Hypocrisy is a restraint of the limbs while the mind still chews the objects. Action is better than inaction.

नेपालीमा

अर्जुनले विरोधाभास सुन्नुहुन्छ। बुद्धि श्रेष्ठ भए यो भयानक कर्म किन? दुई स्थिति भनिन्छन्: ज्ञानयोग र कर्मयोग। कसैले पनि क्षणभर कर्म नगरी बस्न सक्दैन। अङ्गलाई रोकेर मनले विषय चपाइरहनु ढोंग हो। कर्म नगर्नुभन्दा गर्नु राम्रो हो।

3.1Arjuna (अर्जुन) said: If you hold the buddhi superior to action, Janārdana (जनार्दन), why do you yoke me to this terrible action, Keśava (केशव)?3.2With a speech that seems mixed you bewilder my understanding, as it were: decide, and say that one thing by which I may reach the good.3.3Two stances were taught: the yoga of knowledge, and the yoga of action.3.4A person does not reach the actionless state by not beginning actions, and he does not reach perfection by renunciation alone.3.5No one ever remains even a moment without doing action; everyone is made to act, helpless, by the qualities born of nature.3.6He who sits having restrained the organs of action, while remembering the sense-objects with the mind, deluded in himself, is called a man of false conduct.3.7But he who controls the senses with the mind and undertakes the yoga of action with the organs of action, unattached, excels, Arjuna (अर्जुन).3.8Do the action that is yours. Action is better than doing nothing.QuizFive questions on Two stances.

9–21 श्रीभगवान् Śrī Bhagavān · The world is held up by action

Summary

The world is held up by action. Sacrifice, in these verses, is the offering that keeps the wheel turning. The one who eats without offering eats theft. The perfected one has nothing to do and still acts, for the holding together of the world. What a great one does, others follow.

नेपालीमा

संसार कर्मले धानिएको छ। यी श्लोकमा यज्ञ भनेको चक्र घुमाइरहने अर्पण हो। अर्पण नगरी खानेले चोरीको खाना खान्छ। सिद्धले गर्नुपर्ने केही नभए पनि ऊ कर्म गर्छ, लोक एकसाथ टिकिरहोस् भनेर। महान्ले जे गर्छ, अरूले त्यही पछ्याउँछन्।

3.9Other than action done for sacrifice, this world is bound by action; for that purpose, son of Kuntī (कुन्ती), perform action, free of attachment.3.10Having created creatures together with sacrifice, Prajāpati (प्रजापति) said of old: By this, bring forth; let this be your cow of wishes.3.11By this, foster the gods, and let the gods foster you; fostering one another, you will reach the highest good.3.12The gods, nourished by sacrifice, will give you the enjoyments you desire; he who enjoys what they give without giving it back is nothing but a thief.3.13The good, who eat what remains from sacrifice, are freed from every stain; the wicked, who cook for their own sake, eat evil.3.14From food, beings arise; from rain, food arises; from sacrifice, rain arises; and sacrifice arises from action.3.15Know action as arisen from brahma (ब्रह्म), and brahma (ब्रह्म) as arisen from the imperishable; therefore the all-pervading brahma (ब्रह्म) is always established in sacrifice.3.16He who does not keep this wheel turning here lives in vain, Pārtha (पार्थ), a life of evil spent in the senses.3.17But the person who delights only in the self, is content in the self, and is satisfied in the self alone — for him nothing remains that must be done.3.18He has nothing to gain here by what is done, nor anything by what is left undone, and among all beings he has nothing he must lean on.3.19So do the work that must be done, unattached.3.20By action alone Janaka (जनक) and the others reached perfection; you too ought to act, looking even to the holding-together of the world.3.21Whatever the best person does, that is what other people do; the standard he sets, the world follows.QuizFive questions on The world is held up by action.

22–35 श्रीभगवान् Śrī Bhagavān · One's own dharma

Summary

One's own dharma is the theme again, from Kṛṣṇa (कृष्ण)'s own example of action without a need. The strands act. The one deluded by the I sense thinks he is the doer. Better one's own dharma, with a fault, than another's well performed. Desire and anger wait in the next section as the enemy inside that duty.

नेपालीमा

आफ्नो धर्म फेरि विषय बन्छ, आवश्यकताबिना कर्म गर्ने कृष्णको आफ्नै उदाहरणबाट। गुणहरूले कर्म गर्छन्। अहङ्कारले मोहित व्यक्ति म कर्ता हुँ भन्ठान्छ। दोषसहित भए पनि आफ्नो धर्म अर्काको राम्ररी गरिएको धर्मभन्दा राम्रो हो। इच्छा र क्रोध अर्को खण्डमा त्यो कर्तव्यभित्रका शत्रुका रूपमा आउँछन्।

3.22There is nothing I must do in the three worlds, Pārtha (पार्थ), and nothing unobtained that I still must obtain — and still I move in action.3.23If I did not stay engaged in action, tireless, at any time, humans would follow my path in every way, Pārtha (पार्थ).3.24These worlds would sink if I did not do action; I would be the maker of mixture, and I would destroy these creatures.3.25As the unwise act, attached to action, Bhārata (भारत), so the wise one should act, unattached, wanting to hold the world together.3.26The wise man should not split the understanding of the ignorant who cling to action; yoked, and performing the acts himself, he should draw them into all actions.3.27Acts are done by the guṇas (गुण) of nature. The one deluded by ego thinks "I am the doer."3.28But the knower of the truth of how qualities and actions divide, O mighty-armed one, thinks "qualities move among qualities," and does not cling.3.29Those deluded by the qualities of nature cling to the actions of the qualities; the one who knows the whole should not unsettle those dull people who do not know the whole.3.30Laying all actions on me, with your mind on the self, having become free of hope and free of "mine," fight, the fever gone.3.31People who always practice this teaching of mine, with faith and without finding fault, they too are freed from actions.3.32But those who sneer at this and do not practice my teaching — know them as lost, mindless, deluded in every knowledge.3.33Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature; beings follow nature; what will restraint do?3.34Attachment and hatred stand in the object of every sense; one should not come under the power of those two, for they are the two who block his path.3.35Better one's own dharma, poorly followed, than another's done well.QuizFive questions on One's own dharma.

36–43 Arjuna (अर्जुन), श्रीभगवान् Śrī Bhagavān · Desire is the enemy

Summary

Arjuna asks what forces a person to sin even against his will. Desire and anger, born of rajas, are the enemy. The senses, the mind, and the intellect are the seats. Knowing what is higher than the intellect, steady the self and kill this enemy that is hard to approach. The section names the foe. It does not give a drill.

नेपालीमा

अर्जुन सोध्छन्, आफ्नो इच्छाविरुद्ध पनि मानिसलाई पाप गर्न केले बाध्य पार्छ? रजोगुणबाट जन्मेका इच्छा र क्रोध नै शत्रु हुन्। इन्द्रिय, मन र बुद्धि तिनका बासस्थान हुन्। बुद्धिभन्दा माथिको कुरा जानेर आत्मालाई स्थिर पार र यो पार गर्न गाह्रो शत्रुलाई मार। यो खण्डले शत्रुको नाम लिन्छ। यसले अभ्यासको क्रम दिँदैन।

3.36Arjuna (अर्जुन) said: Driven by what does a person do evil even without wanting to, descendant of Vṛṣṇi (वृष्णि), as if compelled by force?3.37Desire, and anger which is its other face, is the enemy.3.38As fire is covered by smoke, a mirror by dust, and an embryo by the membrane, so this is covered by that.3.39Knowledge is covered, son of Kuntī (कुन्ती), by this constant enemy of the knower, whose form is desire, a fire hard to fill.3.40The senses, the mind, and the buddhi are called its seat; by these it bewilders the embodied one, having covered knowledge.3.41Therefore, bull of the Bharatas, having first controlled the senses, kill this evil, the destroyer of knowledge and of knowing.3.42They say the senses are high; higher than the senses is the mind; higher than the mind is the buddhi; and higher than the buddhi is he.3.43Thus having known the one higher than the buddhi, and having steadied the self by the self, kill the enemy, O mighty-armed one, the one whose form is desire and who is hard to approach.QuizFive questions on Desire is the enemy.