Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse 5.3. - Swami Krishnananda

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Tuesday, September 15, 2020. 10:44.AM.

Discourse 5: The Second Chapter Concludes – The Establishment of the Soul in Universality -3.

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1.

Now, having said all this, we go to the great injunction of the Bhagavadgita:

 karmanyevadhikaras te ma phaleshu kadacana, 

ma karmaphalahetur bhur ma te sango’stvakarmani (2.47). 

Our duty is to act—that is karmanyevadhikaras—but we have no right to expect any result or particular fruit to accrue from our action. 

From a cursory point of view, this looks like a very hard teaching, like a cruel employer telling a labourer to work hard without expecting any wages. But does God say that we should go on working and He will give us nothing? 

God is not a cruel master. 

The principle behind the obligatory duty incumbent upon every individual is the involvement of every individual in the structure of the universe, to which I made reference when I explained what Sankhya is. 

The whole universe is one single body, whose limbs are the modes of prakriti, and whose soul is the all-pervading purusha : yena sarvam idam tatam (2.17).

2.

Now, why is it that we should act? 

And why is it that we should not expect the fruits of action? 

This will be clear to us if we analyse the reason behind our action, and the reason why fruits will not accrue as we desire. 

Our actions are obligatory on our part on account of our involvement in this psychophysical organism, which is controlled by the movement of the gunas of prakriti. Therefore, as long as prakriti moves, as long as the gunas rotate and revolve in this cosmical process of creation and evolution, we also will be involved in that action. 

Thus, our activity is a participation in the universal action of prakriti; we are not acting independently. The Sankhya knowledge, which we have had an insight into earlier, tells us that, individually, we do not have any kind of prerogative because we are an organic part of the whole structure of prakriti, of which the ruling principle is the purusha.

To be continued ....

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