Chapter III- Arjuna. Thou whom all mortals praise, Janardana!
- If meditation be a nobler thing
- Than action, wherefore, then, great Kesava!
- Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?
- Now am I by thy doubtful speech disturbed!
- Tell me one thing, and tell me certainly;
- By what road shall I find the better end?
- Krishna. I told thee, blameless Lord! there be paths
- Shown to this world; two schools of wisdom. First
- The Sankhya's, which doth save in way of works
- Prescribed by reason; next, the Yog, which bids
- Attain by meditation, spiritually:
- Yet these are one! No man shall 'scape from act
- By shunning action; nay, and none shall come
- By mere renouncements unto perfectness.
- Nay, and no jot of time, at any time,
- Rests any actionless; his nature's law
- Compels him, even unwilling, into act;
- [For thought is act in fancy]. He who sits
- Suppressing all the instruments of flesh,
- Yet in his idle heart thinking on them,
- Plays the inept and guilty hypocrite:
- But he who, with strong body serving mind,
- Gives up his mortal powers to worthy work,
- Not seeking gain, Arjuna! such an one
- Is honourable. Do thine allotted task!
- Work is more excellent than idleness;
- The body's life proceeds not, lacking work.
- There is a task of holiness to do,
- Unlike world-binding toil, which bindeth not
- The faithful soul; such earthly duty do
- Free from desire, and thou shalt well perform
- Thy heavenly purpose. Spake Prajapati-
- In the beginning, when all men were made,
- And, with mankind, the sacrifice- "Do this!
- Work! sacrifice! Increase and multiply
- With sacrifice! This shall be Kamaduk,
- Your 'Cow of Plenty,' giving back her milk
- Of all abundance. Worship the gods thereby;
- The gods shall yield thee grace. Those meats ye
- The gods will grant to Labour, when it pays
- Tithes in the altar-flame. But if one eats
- Fruits of the earth, rendering to kindly Heaven
- No gift of toil, that thief steals from his world."
- Who eat of food after their sacrifice
- Are quit of fault, but they that spread a feast
- All for themselves, eat sin and drink of sin.
- By food the living live; food comes of rain,
- And rain comes by the pious sacrifice,
- And sacrifice is paid with tithes of toil;
- Thus action is of Brahma, who is One,
- The Only, All-pervading; at all times
- Present in sacrifice. He that abstains
- To help the rolling wheels of this great world,
- Glutting his idle sense, lives a lost life,
- Shameful and vain. Existing for himself,
- Self-concentrated, serving self alone,
- No part hath he in aught; nothing achieved,
- Nought wrought or unwrought toucheth him; no hope
- Of help for all the living things of earth
- Depends from him. Therefore, thy task prescribed
- With spirit unattached gladly perform,
- Since in performance of plain duty man
- Mounts to his highest bliss. By works alone
- Janak and ancient saints reached blessedness!
- Moreover, for the upholding of thy kind,
- Action thou should'st embrace. What the wise choose
- The unwise people take; what best men do
- The multitude will follow. Look on me,
- Thou Son of Pritha! in the three wide worlds
- I am not bound to any toil, no height
- Awaits to scale, no gift remains to gain,
- Yet I act here! and, if I acted not-
- Earnest and watchful- those that look to me
- For guidance, sinking back to sloth again
- Because I slumbered, would decline from good,
- And I should break earth's order and commit
- Her offspring unto ruin, Bharata!
- Even as the unknowing toil, wedded to sense,
- So let the enlightened toil, sense-freed, but set
- To bring the world deliverance, and its bliss;
- Not sowing in those simple, busy hearts
- Seed of despair. Yea! let each play his part
- In all he finds to do, with unyoked soul.
- All things are everywhere by Nature wrought
- In interaction of the quahties.
- The fool, cheated by self, thinks, "This I did"
- And "That I wrought;" but- ah, thou strong-armed Prince!-
- A better-lessoned mind, knowing the play
- Of visible things within the world of sense,
- And how the qualities must qualify,
- Standeth aloof even from his acts. Th' untaught
- Live mixed with them, knowing not Nature's way,
- Of highest aims unwitting, slow and dull.
- Those make thou not to stumble, having the light;
- But all thy dues discharging, for My sake,
- With meditation centred inwardly,
- Seeking no profit, satisfied, serene,
- Heedless of issue- fight! They who shall keep
- My ordinance thus, the wise and willing hearts,
- Have quittance from all issue of their acts;
- But those who disregard My ordinance,
- Thinking they know, know nought, and fall to loss,
- Confused and foolish. 'Sooth, the instructed one
- Doth of his kind, following what fits him most:
- And lower creatures of their kind; in vain
- Contending 'gainst the law. Needs must it be
- The objects of the sense will stir the sense
- To like and dislike, yet th' enlightened man
- Yields not to these, knowing them enemies.
- Finally, this is better, that one do
- His own task as he may, even though he fail,
- Than take tasks not his own, though they seem good.
- To die performing duty is no ill;
- But who seeks other roads shall wander still.
- Arjuna. Yet tell me, Teacher! by what force doth man
- Go to his ill, unwilling; as if one
- Pushed him that evil path?
- Krishna. Kama it is!
- Passion it is! born of the Darknesses,
- Which pusheth him. Mighty of appetite,
- Sinful, and strong is this!- man's enemy!
- As smoke blots the white fire, as clinging rust
- Mars the bright mirror, as the womb surrounds
- The babe unborn, so is the world of things
- Foiled, soiled, enclosed in this desire of flesh.
- The wise fall, caught in it; the unresting foe
- It is of wisdom, wearing countless forms,
- Fair but deceitful, subtle as a flame.
- Sense, mind, and reason- these, O Kunti's Son!
- Are booty for it; in its play with these
- It maddens man, beguiling, blinding him.
- Therefore, thou noblest child of Bharata!
- Govern thy heart! Constrain th' entangled sense!
- Resist the false, soft sinfulness which saps
- Knowledge and judgment! Yea, the world is strong
- But what discerns it stronger, and the mind
- Strongest; and high o'er all the ruling Soul.
- Wherefore, perceiving Him who reigns supreme,
- Put forth full force of Soul in thy own soul!
- Fight! vanquish foes and doubts, dear Hero! slay
- What haunts thee in fond shapes, and would betray!
HERE ENDETH Chapter III OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Karma-Yog," Or "The Book of Virtue in Work." |
