Bg 3.8
niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ
śarīra-yātrāpi ca te na prasidhyed akarmaṇaḥ
Bg 3.9
yajñārthāt karmaṇo ’nyatraloko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ
tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara
Translation:
8. You perform (your) bounden duty; for, action is superior to inaction. Even the maintenance of the body would not be possible for you by inaction.
9. The World is bound by action other than those performed 'for the sake of sacrifice' ; do thou, therefore, O son of Kunti, perform action of that sake (for YAJNA ) alone, free from all attachments.
Commentary Excerpts:
In our work-a-day world, we must understand this term 'bounden duty' (Niyatam Karma) in the text, to include all "obligatory actions" of an individual in his home, in his office, and in the society as a national being. Thus, not to perform diligently all our duties in the home and in the world outside would be inaction. We are warned that even a healthy bodily existence is not possible if we were to live in complete inertia and inactivity. Inactivity brings about the destruction of the nation, of the society, and of the home, and often the very individual himself becomes victimised by his own idleness and suffers physical debilities and intellectual deterioration.
Every action does not bring about bondages upon the doer. It is only unintelligent activities that thicken the impressions in the mind, and thus successfully build a thick and impenetrable wall between the ego-centre and the unlimited Divine-Spark-of-Life in us. Every action motivated by ego-centric desires thickens the veil and permits not even a single ray of the essential Divinity to peep through it, to illumine the life in us. According to the traditional translation, all activities other than the Yajna-activities will bring about vasana-bondages, and the individual's ultimate development and growth will be arrested.
Yajna here means only "any self-sacrificing work, undertaken in a spirit of self-dedication, for the blessing of all." Such an action cannot be self-degrading and, therefore, it is self-liberating. The following stanzas also will become more and more clear, and universally appropriate in their meaning, only when we understand Yajna as "any social, communal, national, or personal activity into which the individual is ready to pour himself forth entirely in a spirit of service and dedication."
Only when people come forward to act in a spirit of co-operation and self-dedication, can the community get itself freed from its shackles of poverty and sorrow. This is a fact endorsed by history. And such activities can be undertaken in a spirit of Divine loyalty, only when the worker has no attachment. Arjuna's defect was that he got too attached to the individuals in the opposing forces, and he developed, consequently, wrong relationships with them. Therefore, he came to feel that he must run away from the field of work that had presented itself before him.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ
śarīra-yātrāpi ca te na prasidhyed akarmaṇaḥ
Bg 3.9
yajñārthāt karmaṇo ’nyatraloko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ
tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara
Translation:
8. You perform (your) bounden duty; for, action is superior to inaction. Even the maintenance of the body would not be possible for you by inaction.
9. The World is bound by action other than those performed 'for the sake of sacrifice' ; do thou, therefore, O son of Kunti, perform action of that sake (for YAJNA ) alone, free from all attachments.
Commentary Excerpts:
In our work-a-day world, we must understand this term 'bounden duty' (Niyatam Karma) in the text, to include all "obligatory actions" of an individual in his home, in his office, and in the society as a national being. Thus, not to perform diligently all our duties in the home and in the world outside would be inaction. We are warned that even a healthy bodily existence is not possible if we were to live in complete inertia and inactivity. Inactivity brings about the destruction of the nation, of the society, and of the home, and often the very individual himself becomes victimised by his own idleness and suffers physical debilities and intellectual deterioration.
Every action does not bring about bondages upon the doer. It is only unintelligent activities that thicken the impressions in the mind, and thus successfully build a thick and impenetrable wall between the ego-centre and the unlimited Divine-Spark-of-Life in us. Every action motivated by ego-centric desires thickens the veil and permits not even a single ray of the essential Divinity to peep through it, to illumine the life in us. According to the traditional translation, all activities other than the Yajna-activities will bring about vasana-bondages, and the individual's ultimate development and growth will be arrested.
Yajna here means only "any self-sacrificing work, undertaken in a spirit of self-dedication, for the blessing of all." Such an action cannot be self-degrading and, therefore, it is self-liberating. The following stanzas also will become more and more clear, and universally appropriate in their meaning, only when we understand Yajna as "any social, communal, national, or personal activity into which the individual is ready to pour himself forth entirely in a spirit of service and dedication."
Only when people come forward to act in a spirit of co-operation and self-dedication, can the community get itself freed from its shackles of poverty and sorrow. This is a fact endorsed by history. And such activities can be undertaken in a spirit of Divine loyalty, only when the worker has no attachment. Arjuna's defect was that he got too attached to the individuals in the opposing forces, and he developed, consequently, wrong relationships with them. Therefore, he came to feel that he must run away from the field of work that had presented itself before him.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
No comments:
Post a Comment