Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Seventeen
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
How Not To Act
The next (third) chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is devoted to the subject of Karma Yoga–the yoga of selfless action, including the performance of one’s own duty and the service of humanity. In my opinion, the final and complete word on the subject is Swami Vivekananda’s small book Karma Yoga, and I recommend that you obtain and study it. But for now let us consider Krishna’s anticipation of the subject.
“You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working. Never give way to laziness, either.”
Karma/work and its fruit
Ordinarily when we speak of karma we mean the law of cause and effect, but it also means action or work. This is the usual meaning in the Bhagavad Gita. Karma includes both physical and mental activity (including both thought and feeling), which is why Jesus said that the mere desire to do evil was a form of commiting the act. As Krishna says: “The real nature of action is hard to understand. He who sees the inaction that is in action, and the action that is in inaction, is wise indeed.” The “fruit” of action (phala in Sanskrit) is the result or effect of activity, both actual and intended.
Authorization to work
We are bombarded with nonsensical talk about “rights” to everything imaginable. (How can any sane person believe there is a “right to read”?). So if we are not careful we will accept the phrase “right to work” in the nonsensical meaning of politicians and social activists (whatever they are). “Right” is a very poor translation of adhikara, although just about everyone uses it. Adhikara means authority, qualification, jurisdiction, or prerogative; only peripherally does it mean privilege–and never “a right.” Basically, by taking human birth we have been authorized or enabled to engage in action. In truth, we cannot escape such an engagement, therefore we must learn from Krishna how to do it right. And even before that we have to learn how to view our action and its authorization. Krishna is teaching us the correct perspective we must have on our entire life, which consists of nothing but action (and reaction).
The way in and the way out
Presently we are caught in the net of constant activity, and consequently enmeshed in bondage. Action has put us in this mess and action can free us from it. As Swami Sivananda translates an upcoming verse: “Endowed with wisdom (evenness of mind), one casts off in this life both good and evil deeds; therefore, devote thyself to Yoga; Yoga is skill in action.” We must walk the tightrope of right action, as Buddha has counseled us.
Krishna has given us several principles we must understand and assimilate.
You have the right [authorization] to work
The sole purpose of the universe–and our involvement in it–is evolution. And all growth is movement, either automatic or intentional. For us who have come to the level of conscious self-awareness, action is the answer. Until now we have been carried along by the wave of mechanical, involuntary movement–which was necessary, since we did not have the requisite level of development to take charge of our own movement forward. But now we do. During the period in which we were being impelled along by the currents of cosmic life (that are indicated by the movement of the planets), alternately emerging and being submerged in the ocean of samsara, we set many forces in motion by our response to those ups and downs. These forces took the form of both karma and samskara. So now that we are “on our own” to a significant degree, we have to deal with them, mostly by neutralizing them or using them as ascending steps in our inner growth.
Because of all this we are authorized to engage in actions…
But for the work’s sake only
It is our desire for objects and our engaging in work meant to result in the fulfilment of those desires that has entangled us and put us in our present state of confusion and bondage. To engage in further action with desire as the moving force would only compound our dilemma. So we act for the sake of action alone–not random action, but action which will free us from the compulsion to act. In other words, we begin to act as free, conscious beings, not as semi-conscious wanderers. By acting we bring about freedom from action.
You have no right [authorization] to the fruits of work
Right action is not supposed in and of itself to “bear fruit,” but to free us from all “harvesting.” Usually, when we act we put ourselves under the necessity of reaping the effects of the action, “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” But there is a way to act in which there is no result except the freedom from further action. Some actions forge chains and other actions break them. The latter is needful for our progress.
Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working
Result in the form of external effects is not at all what ultimately matters. What does matter is the effect of action on our state of consciousness. To free our consciousness we must be totally free of desire for results. When we can act in this way all bonds drop away and we are free–not self-realized as some erroneously think, but free to move on to higher degrees of evolution without any more entanglements. Self-realization is then possible.
Never give way to laziness, either
It has to be admitted that a great deal of “detachment,” “indifference,” “uninvolvement,” and “renunciation” are nothing more than classical laziness on the mental and physical levels. In India especially we find a lot of “renouncers” and “non-attachers”–both monastic and non-monastic–that are simply bundles of tamasic ignorance and indolence. Years ago I heard a minister tell of a man in his home town who was “called by God,” and consequently refused to engage in any “worldly” activity. All day long he sat and read the Bible–or at least turned the pages in a leisurely manner. The pages were gilt-edged, so they flashed and gleamed in the sunlight during good weather when he was sitting outside on the porch. Occasionally his wife would ask him to do a simple task or give her a little help. He would smile, lift his voice so the neighbors could hear, and reply: “Why, wife; do you not know ‘that I must be about my Father’s business’?” And that was that. Much later I saw a television program in which some people announced: “We just want to do our own thing.” When asked: “What is your ‘own thing”?” They answered: “Nothing.” Krishna warns us against this vacuousness of mind and heart.
By the way, Krishna urges us to desireless action, but not to motiveless action. There is a difference. We are to act with a motive: liberation.
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 2:47
[Go back]
2) “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…. I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:21,22; 28) [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 4:17,18 [Go back]
4) Galatians 6:7 [Go back]
5) Luke 2:49 [Go back]
