CHAPTER 3 – KARMA YOGA 1. Arjuna says to Krishna, ‘Krishna, I am totally confused. On one hand you are asking me to act, to get up and to fight. At the same time, you are also asking me to look inside, develop discrimination and become wise. How can I do both? If I have to act, I can’t be spending time looking inside. On the other hand if I start looking inside, I am sure I would get lost there! In which case, how would I be able to act? 2. Krishna smiles and replies, ‘Arjuna, Let Me, to start with, make two things very clear. 1) The two paths as you call them, are called respectively the Path of Action or Karma Yoga and the Path of Wisdom or Sankhya Yoga. 2) Both these lead to the same goal, namely Eternal Bliss and freedom from rebirth. 3. ‘You are possibly wondering how that could be possible, since these two paths seem to be so very different. That is what I shall now explain.’ 4. ‘Let Me start with the so-called Path of Action. When I ask you to follow the Path of Action it does not mean that I am asking you to become a workaholic, go-getter and things like that. I mean something very different.’ 5. ‘First and foremost, a person dedicated to the Path of Action accepts the role Destiny has carved out for him and does his best in that role. Now take your own case. You are born a soldier, a warrior. The duty of a soldier is to fight for Dharma. That is what you must do, and not run away talking like a Sanyasi, as you were in fact trying to do a short while ago.’ 6. ‘Next, you must plunge into action with perfect calmness. You must always be cool and unperturbed.’ 7. ‘Further, the action that you perform must be done as a sacred duty. Action becomes sacred only when duty is performed for duty’s sake and not for personal gains and ends. You should never calculate about success and failure or dream about the benefits that would come to you if you were to act in a particular way.’ 8. ‘If it is destined that you should “fail” in whatever it is that you are trying to do, accept that outcome calmly as the Will of God. Let us say there is a person who is very sick, and that a doctor is treating the patient. The doctor cannot say, “This fellow is going to die anyway so why bother?” He must do his VERY BEST and leave the rest to God. And whatever happens, he should calmly accept that as the Will of God. With God’s Grace, the patient may even pull through. For your information, this has happened any number of times.’ 9. ‘By the way Arjuna, don’t ever get the idea that God causes failure. Things may not exactly happen the way you want things to happen but that does not mean that the effort is a failure. You see God always knows what is best, and if He has postponed what you regard as “success”, it is with good reason. In the meanwhile, do not jump to the conclusion that there has been a failure.’ 10. ‘Arjuna, two important points must be noted concerning action. The first is that no one can be perfectly still and stay away from action. But actions can either bind one in this World or liberate one from it! If you want to get liberated, then you must act without any selfish motives & without any expectations! 11. ‘The second point is that there is action everywhere in the Universe. In fact a static Universe where nothing ever happens is impossible! Up there in the heavens the Sun shines, the planets move about and so on. All this is Divinely-ordained action.’ CONTINUED…
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 06:05:49 +0000
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