Arjuna said: O Janardana (Krishna)! if thou dost consider understanding to be superior to action, why then, O Keshava (Krishna), dost thou enjoin on me this awful activity?
With these apparently conflicting speeches thou art, as it were, confusing my intelligence. Please let me know for certain that one thing by which I will achieve the highest good.
The Cosmic Lord said: O Sinless One, at the onset of creation, a twofold way of salvation was given by Me to this world: for the wise, divine union through wisdom; for the yogis, divine union through active meditation.
Actionlessness is not attained simply by avoiding actions. By forsaking work no one reaches perfection.
Verily, no one can stay for even a moment without working; all are indeed compelled to perform actions willy-nilly, prodded by the qualities (gunas) born of Nature (Prakriti).
The individual who forcibly controls the organs of action, but whose mind rotates around thoughts of sense objects, is said to be a hypocrite, deluding himself.
But that man succeeds supremely, O Arjuna, who, disciplining the senses by the mind, unattached, keeps his organs of activity steadfast on the path of God-uniting actions.
Perform thou those actions that are obligatory, for action is better than inactivity; even simple maintenance of thy body would be impossible through inaction.
Worldly people are karmically bound by activities that differ from those performed as yajna (religious rites); O Son of Kunti (Arjuna), labor thou, nonattached, in the spirit of yajna, offering actions as oblations.
Prajapati (Brahma as the Creator of praja or human beings), having made mankind in the beginning, along with Yajna, said: “By this shalt thou propagate; this will be the milch cow of thy longings… . [See continuation, verse 11 .]
[Prajapati continues:] “With this yajna, meditate on the devas, and may those devas think of thee; thus communing with one another, thou shalt receive the Supreme Good… . [See continuation, verse 12 .]
[Prajapati concludes:] “The devas communed with by yajna will grant thee the craved-for gifts of life.” He who enjoys benefactions of the universal deities without due offerings to them is indeed a thief.
Saints—those who eat the remnants of due fire offerings (yajna)—are freed from all sin; but sinners—those who make food just for themselves—feast on sin.
From food, creatures spring forth; from rain, food is begotten. From Yajna (the sacrificial cosmic fire), rain issues forth; the cosmic fire (cosmic light) is born of karma (divine vibratory action).
Know this divine vibratory activity to have come into being from Brahma (God’s Creative Consciousness); and this Creative Consciousness to derive from the Imperishable (the Everlasting Spirit). Therefore, God’s Creative Consciousness (Brahma), which is all-pervading, is inherently and inseparably present in Yajna (the cosmic fire or light, which in turn is the essence of all components of vibratory creation).
That man, O Son of Pritha (Arjuna), who in this world does not follow the wheel thus set rotating, living in iniquity and contented in the senses, lives in vain!
But the individual who truly loves the soul and is fully satisfied with the soul and finds utter contentment in the soul alone, for him no duty exists.
Such a person has no purpose of gain in this world by performing actions, nor does he lose anything by their nonperformance. He is not dependent on anyone for anything.
Therefore, always conscientiously perform good material actions (karyam) and spiritual actions (karman) without attachment. By doing all actions without attachment, one attains the highest.
By the path of right action alone, Janaka and others like him reached perfection. Also, simply for the purpose of rightly guiding mortals, thou shouldst perform action.
Whatever a superior being does, inferior persons imitate. His actions set a standard for people of the world.
O Son of Pritha (Arjuna), no compelling duty have I to perform; there is naught that I have not acquired; nothing in the three worlds remains for Me to gain! Yet I am consciously present in the performance of all actions.
O Partha (Arjuna), if at any time I did not continue to perform actions, without pause, men would wholly imitate My way.
If I did not perform actions (in a balanced way), these universes would be annihilated. I would be the cause of dire confusion (“the improper admixture of duties”). I would thus be the instrument of men’s ruination.
O Descendant of Bharata (Arjuna), as the ignorant perform actions with attachment and hope of reward, so the wise should act with dispassionate nonattachment, to serve gladly as a guide for the multitudes.
Under no circumstances should the wise disturb the understanding of ignorant persons who are attached to actions. Instead, the illumined being, by conscientiously performing activities, should inspire in the ignorant a desire for all dutiful actions.
All action is universally engendered by the attributes (gunas) of primordial Nature (Prakriti). A man whose Self is deluded by egoity thinks, “I am the doer.”
O Mighty-armed (Arjuna)! the knower of truth about the divisions of the gunas (attributes of Nature) and their actions—realizing it is the gunas as sense attributes that are attached to the gunas as sense objects—keeps (his Self) unattached to them.
The yogi of perfect wisdom should not bewilder the minds of men who have imperfect understanding. Deluded by the attributes of primordial Nature, the ignorant must cling to the activities engendered by those gunas.
Relinquish all activities unto Me! Devoid of egotism and expectation, with your attention concentrated on the soul, free from feverish worry, be engaged in the battle (of activity).
Men, devotion-filled, who ceaselessly practice My precepts, without fault-finding, they too become free from all karma.
But those who denounce this teaching of Mine and do not live according to it, wholly deluded in regard to true wisdom, know them, devoid of understanding, to be doomed.
Even the wise man acts according to the tendencies of his own nature. All living creatures go according to Nature; what can (superficial) suppression avail?
Attachment and repulsion of the senses for their specific objects are Nature-ordained. Beware the influence of this duality. Verily, these two (psychological qualities) are one’s enemies!
One’s own duty (svadharma), though deficient in quality, is superior to duty other than one’s own (paradharma), though well accomplished. Better it is to die in svadharma; paradharma is fraught with fear and danger.
Arjuna said: O Varshney a 45 (Krishna), by what is man impelled, even against his will, to perform evil—compelled, it seems, by force?
The Blessed Lord said: Born of the activating attribute of Nature (rajo-guna), it is desire, it is anger, (that is the impelling force)—full of unappeasable craving and great evil: know this (two-sided passion) to be the foulest enemy here on earth.
As fire is obscured by smoke, as a looking glass by dust, as an embryo is enveloped by the womb, so it (wisdom) is covered by this (desire).
O Son of Kunti (Arjuna)! the constant enemy of wise men is the unslakable flame of desire, by which wisdom is concealed.
The senses, mind, and intellect are said to be desire’s formidable stronghold; through these, desire deludes the embodied soul by eclipsing its wisdom.
Therefore, O Best of the Bharata Dynasty (Arjuna)! 48 first discipline the senses, then destroy desire, the sinful annihilator of wisdom and Self-realization.
The senses are said to be superior (to the physical body); the mind is superior to the sense faculties; the intelligence is superior to the mind; but he (the Self) is superior to the intelligence.
O Mighty-armed (Arjuna)! thus cognizing the Self as superior to the intelligence, and disciplining the self (ego) by the Self (soul), annihilate the foe! hard-to-conquer, wearing the form of desire.