3.7 The Yog of Action

31. Very beautifully, the Supreme Lord terms the siddhānt (principle) explained by him as mata (opinion). An opinion is a personal view, while a principle is universal fact. Opinions can differ amongst teachers, but the principle is the same. Philosophers and teachers name their opinion as principle, but in the Gita, the Lord has named the principle explained by him as opinion. By his example, he is teaching us humility and cordiality.

Having given the call for action, Shree Krishna now points out the virtues of accepting the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita with faith and following them in one's life. Our prerogative as humans is to know the truth and then modify our lives accordingly. In this way, our mental fever (of lust, anger, greed, envy, illusion, etc.) gets pacified.

In the previous verse, Shree Krishna had clearly explained to Arjun to offer all works to him. But he knows that this statement can cause ridicule from those who have no belief in God and rebuke from those who are envious of him. So, he now emphasizes the need for accepting the teachings with conviction. He says that by faithfully following these teachings one becomes free from the bondage of karma. But what happens to those who are faithless? Their position is explained next.

32. The teachings presented by Shree Krishna are perfect for our eternal welfare. However, our material intellect has innumerable imperfections, and so we are not always able to comprehend the sublimity of his teachings or appreciate their benefits. If we could, what would be the difference between us tiny souls and the Supreme Divine Personality? Thus, faith becomes a necessary ingredient for accepting the divine teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Wherever our intellect is unable to comprehend, rather than finding fault with the teachings, we must submit our intellect, "Shree Krishna has said it. There must be veracity in it, which I cannot understand at present. Let me accept it for now and engage in spiritual sādhanā. I will be able to comprehend it in future, when I progress in spirituality through sādhanā." This attitude is called śhraddhā, or faith.

Jagadguru Shankaracharaya defines śhraddhā as: "Śhraddhā is strong faith in the words of the Guru and the scriptures." Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explained it similarly: śhraddhā śhabde viśwāsa kahe sudṛiḍha niśhchaya (Chaitanya Charitāmṛit, Madhya Leela, "The word Śhraddhā means strong faith in God and Guru, even though we may not comprehend their message at present." The British poet, Alfred Tennyson said: "By faith alone, embrace believing, where we cannot prove." So, śhraddhā means earnestly digesting the comprehensible portions of the Bhagavad Gita, and also accepting the abstruse portions, with the hope that they will become comprehensible in future.

However, one of the persistent defects of the material intellect is pride. Due to pride, whatever the intellect cannot comprehend at present, it often rejects as incorrect. Though Shree Krishna's teachings are presented by the omniscient Lord for the welfare of the souls, people still find fault in them, such as, "Why is God asking everything to be offered to him? Is he greedy? Is he an egotist that he asks Arjun to worship him?" Shree Krishna says that such people are achetasaḥ, or "devoid of discrimination," because they cannot distinguish between the pure and the impure, the righteous and the unrighteous, the Creator and the created, the Supreme Master and the servant. Such people "bring about their own ruin," because they reject the path to eternal salvation and keep rotating in the cycle of life and death.

33. Shree Krishna again comes back to the point about action being superior to inaction. Propelled by their natures, people are inclined to act in accordance with their individual modes. Even those who are theoretically learned carry with them the baggage of the sanskārs (tendencies and impressions) of endless past lives, the prārabdh karma of this life, and the individual traits of their minds and intellects. They find it difficult to resist this force of habit and nature. If the Vedic scriptures instructed them to give up all works and engage in pure spirituality, it would create an unstable situation. Such artificial repression would be counter-productive. The proper and easier way for spiritual advancement is to utilize the immense force of habit and tendencies and dovetail it in the direction of God. We have to begin the spiritual ascent from where we stand, and doing so requires we have to first accept our present condition of what we are and then improve on it.

We can see how even animals act according to their unique natures. Ants are such social creatures that they bring food for the community while forsaking it themselves, a quality that is difficult to find in human society. A cow has such intense attachment for its calf that the moment it goes out of its sight, the cow feels disturbed. Dogs display the virtue of loyalty to depths that cannot be matched by the best of humans. Similarly, we humans too are propelled by our natures. Since Arjun was a warrior by nature, Shree Krishna told him, "Your own Kṣhatriya (warrior) nature will compel you to fight." (Bhagavad Gita) "You will be driven to do it by your own inclination, born of your nature." (Bhagavad Gita) That nature should be sublimated by shifting the goal from worldly enjoyment to God-realization, and performing our prescribed duty without attachment and aversion, in the spirit of service to God.

34. Although Shree Krishna previously emphasized that the mind and senses are propelled by their natural tendencies, he now opens up the possibility of harnessing them. As long as we have the material body, for its maintenance, we have to utilize the objects of the senses. Shree Krishna is not asking us to stop consuming what is necessary, but to practice eradicating attachment and aversion. Definitely sanskārs (past life tendencies) do have a deep-rooted influence on all living beings, but if we practice the method taught in the Bhagavad Gita, we can succeed in correcting the situation.

The senses naturally run toward the sense objects and their mutual interaction creates sensations of pleasure and pain. For example, the taste buds experience joy in contact with delicious foods and distress in contact with bitter foods. The mind repeatedly contemplates the sensations of pleasure and pain which it associates with these objects. Thoughts of pleasure in the sense objects create attachment while thoughts of pain create aversion. Shree Krishna tells Arjun to succumb neither to feelings of attachment nor aversion.

In the discharge of our worldly duty, we will have to encounter all kinds of likeable and unlikeable situations. We must practice neither to yearn for the likeable situations, nor to avoid the unlikeable situations. When we stop being slaves of both the likes and dislikes of the mind and senses, we will overcome our lower nature. And when we become indifferent to both pleasure and pain in the discharge of our duty, we will become truly free to act from our higher nature.

35. In this verse, the word dharma has been used four times. Dharma is a word commonly used in Hinduism and Buddhism. But it is the most elusive word to translate into the English language. Terms like righteousness, good conduct, duty, noble quality, etc. only describe an aspect of its meaning. Dharma comes from the root word dhṛi, which means ḍhāraṇ karane yogya, or "responsibilities, duties, thoughts, and actions that are appropriate for us." For example, the dharma of the soul is to love God. It is like the central law of our being.

The prefix swa means "the self." Thus, swa-dharma is our personal dharma, which is the dharma applicable to our context, situation, maturity, and profession in life. This swa-dharma can change as our context in life changes, and as we grow spiritually. By asking Arjun to follow his swa-dharma, Shree Krishna is telling him to follow his profession, and not change it because someone else may be doing something else.

It is more enjoyable to be ourselves than to pretend to be someone else. The duties born of our nature can be easily performed with stability of mind. The duties of others may seem attractive from a distance and we may think of switching, but that is a risky thing to do. If they conflict with our nature, they will create disharmony in our senses, mind, and intellect. This will be detrimental for our consciousness and will hinder our progress on the spiritual path. Shree Krishna emphasizes this point dramatically by saying that it is better to die in the faithful performance of one's duty than to be in the unnatural position of doing another's duty.