Shrimad Bhagavad Gita: Unfoldment Through Action (Chapter 3)

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Action is the insignia of Life. Due to the inherent tendencies (vasanas) in us we are forced to act. But how weact determines where we will reach.

In Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krsna explains to a confused Arjuna that though Knowledge may seem superior to Action, it is imperative that both be practised.

Step by step, Sri Krsna shows how the path of Action is a means to the end and what happens to those who do not act. Action when practised without attachment to its result, purifies the mind and integrates the personality. This makes the mind receptive to receive the knowledge that leads to Self-realisation.

Swami Chinmayananda puls a modern-day perspective to the teachings of Sri Krsna, helping us to transcend the world of action into the subtler realms of contemplation.

So far Sri Krsna vehemently argued against Arjuna's decision not to fight, but to renounce the glory of success and retire to the quietude of the jungle to live there the life of a monk, seeking the Divine. In his arguments, at one moment, the Lord advised that Arjuna's duty was to work without getting himself preoccupied with the result. Krsna had also warned him, 'Let not thy attachment be towards. inaction. Later on, the chapter concluded (Gita 2.55-72) with the inspired advocacy of the path of Knowledge. Naturally, like any sincere student, Arjuna felt confused as to which of the paths he was to follow for his self-development.

The Vedanta philosophy of India is taught to the student during an intimate and free discussion between the Teacher and the taught. In no other religion in the world do we find so much freedom allowed to the disciple to ask freely and openly to contradict, and to argue with his Teachers.

Vedanta being a complete and exhaustive science of religion, the great rsis never bypassed the intellect of their disciples by appealing to their blind faith or insisting upon their abject devotion. The Masters of old encouraged doubts. and invited discussions. It is during these discussions that the student wrestled with the Teacher in the arena of the intellect, and by this exercise he became spiritually stronger and perfectly agile in all the other layers of his personality. This style of the Upanisads has been beautifully preserved and artistically employed by the great poet philosopher Vyasa, in Gita.