Bhagwad Geeta Chapter 3 Paraphrased:
Chapter 3, Karma Yoga
“Karma means You are the Maker of your life. When you truly understand Karma, you realize you are responsible for everything in your life. Every moment, you perform action- physically, mentally, emotionally and energy-wise. Each action creates a certain memory. That is Karma”.
In Bhagwad Geeta, Krishna emphasis the most on Karma Yoga. He says there are two paths:
Path of Knowledge
Path of Action
On hearing this Arjuna decides to choose the path of knowledge and tells Krishna that it’s better to go to the Himalayas and start meditating and give up war. Krishna then explains its difficult to give up action because each thing we do, involves a bit of activity. Even the simple work like eating, drinking, sleeping or breathing also involves action. Moreover, when the action (here, it is the war) is in the mind and we are meditating, we’ll never be at peace. The Path of knowledge is for the thinkers- the quiet, thoughtful ones who delight in the pursuits of the mind. Krishna talks about 2 lifestyles: Social Life and Secluded Life but gives emphasis to the social one because it’s good to have an active and alert life full of actions. He says neither purity, nor knowledge can be attained without actions. How the idle mind falls was well described in verses 62-63 in Chapter 2. When we work, it maintains the harmony of the universe. It’s a cyclic process. Karma is the duty which should be done because:
It contributes to the material and spiritual progress.
It’s the Commandment of the Masters of the Universe.
Karma is done to show gratitude to God for His gifts.
It maintains harmony.
Karma yoga is an understanding and comprises of these aspects of knowledge:
Samatva Buddhi: It’s the most interesting and fascinating aspect of karma yoga. When we develop an attitude of sameness in the result, we say we have attained samatva buddhi. It is the ability to maintain sameness, remain calm, composed and alert, when others get what we believe, belong to us, like a promotion, fame, credit, property etc. It’s quite a difficult preposition but if we have knowledge on how to control our senses, our mind will do it naturally. Here, we need to see our weaknesses and learn from the strength of other people who succeed at that particular time. Samatva also comes when we are happy for success of our friend’s children even when our kids don’t do well. The control over our senses helps us achieve this state of mind. We just need to balance our mind for any success/failure, victory/defeat etc.
Swadharma Buddhi: Normally we do actions based on our thinking what we like and what we don’t like. In actual, they should be based on what is right and what is not right. If we make our mind balanced and do what is right, even when we don’t like it, we are doing swadharma. Swadharma is that action which is in accordance with our nature. It is acting according to our skills and talents, and that for which we can hold ourselves responsible. Any action that does not make us feel afraid or restless is swadharma. In fact, not doing this action should make us feel restless. Dharma is what holds our mind, soul and intellect in harmony. And our growth comes only when we follow swadharma. Perform the action and leave the result to Him.
Samarpan Buddhi: Dedicate your work to Him, to the Nature. Be the Man who does His duty sincerely with no hope of reward. Just offer your work to Him and see the magic unfolding. God always rewards actions but if we are disciplined, committed and work hard, he can be unfailingly generous. Follow the principles of the Universe; the life-giving sun, the nourishing rain, the fertile earth and the flowing rivers. They are continuously performing actions and they know they are not going to get anything in return. If they fail to perform action, the entire Universe will collapse. Similarly, we need to perform because work needs to be done. We are doing this because God has chosen us to do this. Any action we do and we dedicate it to a person who’s selfish, proud, lazy, or with any other negative characteristic, we are not sacrificing our work, we are not understanding what we are here for! Dharma is dedicating our work to the Ishwara who’s existing in everyone’s heart. Then it`s called Samarpan.
Asanga Buddhi: It’s very natural for our mind to wander for results when we are performing actions. But Krishna teaches us to remain unattached. Results will come according to the laws of nature. The secret lies in just performing the actions because they need to be done and not getting attached. If we do our karmas righteously, then whatever be the result, will be good only. And even if its bad, it should not affect us much. We should do what is right because we are bound by Dharma and we have no other choice.
Prasad Buddhi: When we go to a temple and the pandit gives us the prasad, we accept it with utmost devotion. We never show disrespect to it. Similarly when we accept the result of our actions respectfully as prasad, our attitude is termed as Prasad Buddhi. Krishna emphasized that ordinary men are attached to the results of their karmas. But as a leader, Arjuna needs to set an example. Masses follow the legends. For example, mothers tell their cricket loving children to drink Bournvita if they want to become like Sachin Tendulkar. Krishna emphasizes to love what we are doing and do it with our own nature. A simple graphic line describes the work of ordinary and a wise man:
o Ordinary Men---Work---Rewards---Happy// No Reward---Angry & Upset.
o Wise Men---Work---His Nature---Result/No Result---Neither Happy, Nor Sad.
Life is like a roller-coaster and we have no control over the intervals of highs & lows. Sitting in the coaster, we work madly for our ups- coming first in class, winning a tournament, becoming class leader, signing a great business deal, buying a big mansion etc etc. But sometimes despite our hard efforts, the downs arrive- getting a third rank in the next test, rash on the body on the day of a Big Exam(my younger son got severe rash 2 days prior to his JEE Mains), fracture on the day of your travel to another city for signing a great business deal, The Big mansion you were thinking to buy has been bought by someone else and so on. The Gita teaches us that ours is to work as we have control only over our actions. Never neglect your duty. With all humility and equanimity, we should welcome the result of our actions. We should never be a spoil sport. We should never ask God that why are we suffering. Since it’s the Prasad, we should take it without any questions.
Don’t do a sin and say that He is making me do this. We do evil when we have no control over our mind. Anger, hatred, greed and desires are controlling our mind. Understand the difference between the work in devotion and work for result. Work without envy. Attraction and repulsion for objects are felt but don’t fall under the control of senses. Always remember, lust is born of contact with material things and is the sinful enemy of the world. The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Activate your mind and crush this symbol of sin.
To conclude, I would say, Karma is the technique of performing rightful action remaining calm, accepting both success and defeat in the same manner.
Paraphrased by
Preeti Agarwal
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