Text 1
Arjuna said: O Janardana, O Kesava, why do You want to engage me in this ghstly warfare, it You think that intelligence is better than fruitive work?
Text 2
My intelligence is bewildered by Your equivocal instructions. There-fore, please tell me decisively which will be most beneficial for me.
Text 3
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O sinless Arjuna, I have already explained that there are two classes of men who try to realize the self. Some are inclined to understand it by empirical philosophican speculation, and otherss by devotional service.
Text 4
Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.
Text 5
Everyone is forced to act helpessly 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.
Text 6
One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense object cetainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.
Text 7
On the other hand, I f sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-yoga [in Krsa consciousness] without attachment he is by far superior.
Text 8
Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even mainatain one's physical without work.
Text 9
Work done as a sacrifice for Visnu has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunti, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.
Text 10
In the beginning of creation the Lord of all creatures sent forth generation 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."
Text 11
The demigods, being pleased by sacrifices, will also please you, and thus, by cooperation between men and demigods, prosperity will reign for all.
Text 12
In change of the various necessities of life, the demigods, being satisfied by the performance of yajna [sacrifice]. will supply all necessities to you. But he who enjoys such gifts without offering them to demigods in return is certainly a thief.
Text 13
The devotees of the Lord are released from all kind of sins because they eat food which is offered for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyament, verily eat only sin.
Text 14
All living bodies susist on food grains, which are producted from rains, Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and jajna is born of prescribed duties
Text 15
Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transendence is etenally situated in acts of sacrifice.
Text 16
My dear Arjuna, one who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus establishd by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin Living only for the satisfaction of the senses, such a person lives in vain.
Text 17
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.
Text 18
A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he need to depend on any other living being.
Text 19
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.
Text 20
Kings such as Janaka attained perfection solely be performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general you should perform your work.
Text 21
Whatever action a great man performs common men follow. And whatever standarads he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.
Text 22
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 engged in prescribed duties.
Text 23
For if I ever failed to engage in carefully performing prescribed duties, O Partha, certainly all men would follow My path.
Text 24
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.
Text 25
As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, bt without attachment, for sake of leading people on the right path.
Text 26
So as not to discrupt 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 devolopement of Krsna consciousness]
Text 27
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.
Text 28
One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.
Text 29
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,
Text 30
Therefore, O Arjuna, surredering all your works unto. Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietoship, and free from lethargy, fight.
Text 31
Those persons who execute their duties according to My injuncion and who follow this teaching faithfully, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive actions.
Text 32
But those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not follow them are to be considered bereft of all knowdge, befooled, and ruined in their endeavors for perfection.
Text 33
Even a man of knwledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish?
Text 34
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.
Text 35
It is far better to discharge one's prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another's perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one's duty is better than engaging in another's duties, for to follow another's path is dangerous.
Text 36
Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrsni by what is on impelled to sinful acts, even unwillignly, as if engaged by force?
Text 37
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.
Text 38
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.
Text 39
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.
Text 40
The senses, the mind and the intellignece are sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living enity and bewilders him.
Text 41
Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
Text 42
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 highter the intelligence.
Text 43
Thus knowing onself to be transcendental to the materil senses, mind and intellignece, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Krsna consciousness] and thus-by spiritual strength-conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.