Karma Yoga

Arjuna said, "O Krsna, if you deem knowledge to be superior to action, why then do you urge me to engage in this terrible deed?"

You confuse my mind with statements that seem to contradict each other; tell me for certain the one way by which I could reach the highest good.

The Lord said, "In this world, a two-fold way was of yore laid down by Me, O sinless one: Jnana Yoga for the Sankhyas and Karma Yoga for the Yogins."

No one experiences freedom from action (Naiskarmya) by abstaining from work; and no one ever attains success through mere renunciation of work.

No one can remain still for even a moment without doing work; for everyone is compelled to act, despite themselves, by the Gunas born of Nature.

He who, controlling the organs of action, lets his mind dwell on the objects of the senses, is a deluded person and a hypocrite.

But he who, subduing his senses by the mind, O Arjuna, begins to practice Karma Yoga through the organs of action and who is free from attachment, excels.

You must perform your obligatory action; for action is superior to non-action (Jñāna Yoga). For a person following non-action, not even the sustenance of the body is possible.

This world is held in the bondage of work only when work is not performed as a sacrifice. O Arjuna, you must perform work for this purpose, free from attachment.

In the beginning, the Lord of all beings created man along with the sacrifice and said, "By this shall you prosper; this shall be the cow of plenty, granting all your desires."

By this, please the gods, and they will support you. Thus, nourishing each other, you may obtain the highest good.

The gods, pleased by the sacrifice, will bestow upon you the enjoyments you desire. He who enjoys the bounty of the gods without giving them anything in return is but a thief.

Pious people who eat the remnants of sacrifices are freed from all sins, whereas those who are sinful and cook only for their own sake will only incur sin.

All beings arise from food; food is produced from rain; rain comes from sacrifice; and sacrifice is born of action.

Know that activity springs from Brahman, i.e., the physical body; Brahman arises from the imperishable Self; therefore, the all-pervading Brahman is ever established in sacrifice.

He who does not follow the wheel thus set in motion here, lives in sin, satisfying the senses, O Arjuna; he lives in vain.

But the man whose delight is only in the Self, who is satisfied with the Self, who rejoices in the Self, for him nothing remains to be accomplished.

He has no purpose to gain from work done or left undone, nor does he have to rely on any end.

Therefore, do your work without attachment, which ought to be done. For, a person who works without attachment attains the Supreme.

Indeed, Janaka and others reached perfection through Karma Yoga alone. Even recognizing its necessity for guiding the world, you must perform action.

Whatever a great man does, others do too. Whatever standard he sets, the world follows it.

For me, Arjuna, there is nothing in all the three worlds that ought to be done, nor is there anything unaccomplished that ought to be accomplished. Yet I continue to work.

If I did not continue to work unweariedly, O Arjuna, people would follow my path.

If I do not do the work, these people will be lost; and I will be causing chaos in life and thereby ruining all these people.

Just as the ignorant, attached to their work, act, O Arjuna, so too the learned should act without any attachment, and only for the welfare of the world.

He should not bewilder the minds of the ignorant who are attached to work; rather, he should himself perform work with devotion and cause others to do the same.

Actions are being performed in every way by the Gunas of Prakrti; he whose nature is deluded by egoism, however, thinks, 'I am the doer.'

But he who knows the truth about the division of the Gunas and works, O mighty-armed one, through his knowledge that the Gunas 'operate on their own products,' is not attached.

Those who are deluded by the Gunas of Prakrti are attached to the works of the Gunas. But he who knows the whole truth should not disturb the ignorant who do not know the whole truth.

Surrender all your actions to Me, with a mind focused on the Self, free from desire and selfishness, and fight with the heat of excitement abated.

Those men who, full of faith, ever practice this teaching of Mine and those who receive it without cavil—even they are released from karma.

But those who slander it, and those who do not practice this teaching of Mine—know them to be utterly senseless and devoid of all knowledge, and thus lost.

Even the man of knowledge acts according to his nature; all beings follow their own nature. What will repression accomplish?

Each sense has a fixed attachment to and aversion for its corresponding object, but one should not come under their sway, for they are enemies.

Better is one's own duty, even if done poorly, than the duty of another done well. It is better to die while performing one's own duty; the duty of another is full of fear.

Arjuna said, "But, O Krsna, what impels one to commit sin, even against their own will, as if constrained by force?"

The Lord said, "It is desire, it is wrath, born of the guna of rajas; it is a great devourer, an impeller of sin. Know this to be the enemy here."

As a fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, and as an embryo is encased in the amniotic sac, so is this world enveloped by desire.

The knowledge of the intelligent self is enveloped by this constant enemy, O Arjuna, which is of the nature of desire and is difficult to gratify and insatiable.

The senses, the mind, and the intellect are said to be its instruments; by these, it overpowers the embodied self, enveloping its knowledge.

Therefore, O Arjuna, control your senses from the outset and slay this sinful thing that destroys both knowledge and discernment.

They say that the senses are high, the mind is higher than the senses, the intellect is higher than the mind, but what is greater than the intellect is that (desire).

Thus, knowing that which is higher than the intellect and fixing the mind with the help of the intellect in Karma Yoga, O Arjuna, slay this enemy which takes the form of desire, and which is difficult to overcome.