Bhagavad Gita - Adhyay 3 - Karma Yoga (Karm Yog) - Post 4

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When Arjun was confused, he totally surrendered himself in front of Shri Krishna and asked to guide the path of knowledge and understandings to do action. 

After this, Shri Krishna explained to Arjun about Sankhya and Karma, that is knowledge and action respectively. Shri Krishna further explained that doing right deeds is another form of worship, which was performed by the great people in the past and they had set an example for the other people. 

Shri Krishna gave his example that he himself engages in many actions without any fruitive desire or expecting anything in return. Shri Krishna encourages Arjun to take the egocentric action and avoid thinking 'I am the doer of any action'. He was trying to explain that action is nothing but the gunas acting upon the gunas. Shri Krishna said that it is better to do your own action righteously and protect your mind from thinking about other's Karma. 

Arjun asked 'what actions drive humans to evil action?'. Shri Krishna explained that they are driven by gunas, that is Rajas - means a person with qualities of passion and violence. Due to the presence of this gunas, a person can act out of desire and anger which results in the evil action. To avoid this Shri Krishna says that our mind should be stronger than our senses and our understanding of self should be stronger than our mind. 

Arjun belongs to the Kshtriya caste so it is suitable for him to go to the path of action (be a warrior). If someone is from the Brahmin or priest caste, he would be suitable for the yoga of knowledge and understanding. This has been practiced in Dhyan (meditation) and in the study of scriptures. 

While talking about gunas, Shri Krishna explained about the action versus inaction based on the three gunas, that is Sattva - Purity and constructiveness, Rajas - Passion and Tamas - Darkness or destruction. The imbalance in these quantities imbalances the world. 





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