Chapter 3

Chapter 3
How to Work and control senses

This chapter focuses on various reasons why action is essential for the man; why should one act according to one’s caste (Varna); how should one act; which actions help take one to the path of liberation; which actions cause the bondage of life-death cycle etc.
3.01-09

Arjuna asked:

O Janardana, You say one should have enough intelligence to work without expecting results. If that knowledge alone is important, why should I engage in a war? I am still not clear.

Lord Krishna said:

There are two classes of people who try to realize self. One who acquires self knowledge and leads a disciplined path. The other person who does unselfish devoted work. The path of knowledge for men of contemplation and path of service for men of action.


Whatever path one may take, one has to do his duty to attain freedom from the bondage of Karma. No one can get this freedom from past Karma, by simply abstaining from work.
One does not attain freedom from the bondage of Karma by merely abstaining from work. One does not attain fulfillment by simple renunciation. No one can remain without doing work even for a moment and all are made to work. Even the maintenance of your body would not be possible without work.

While working is better than sitting idle, between people who work, the one who controls his emotions and feelings by training and purifying his mind and intellect and engages himself in selfless service is considered superior, because doing service free from selfish attachments to the fruits of work is a service done to the Creator.

Therefore it is necessary you perform your obligatory duty.

3.10-18

In the beginning the creator created human beings together with selfless service to each other. By serving each other they were supposed to prosper.

When people serve each other, each one nourishes them. And the supreme goal was to be attained by nourishing one another.

One who enjoys the gift of celestial controllers without sharing with others is, indeed, a thief. (3.12)

Every one is supposed to eat only after feeding others, including the celestial beings, the demi Gods, through Yajna. The celestial controllers, served by people’s selfless service, will help them in their prosperity. Those who eat after feeding others are freed from all sins. But the selfish who are selfish enough to take care of themselves alone without first offering to God and other celestial beings, they verily eat sin.

All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajna [sacrifice], and yajna is born of prescribed duties

Grains are thus produced by sacrificial work or duty performed by farmers and other field workers. Out of their produce, other living beings are born. The living beings are born from food grains. This type of creation is designed by the Supreme being and thus God is present in this self less service.

Regulated activities are prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas are directly manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Consequently the all-pervading Transcendence is eternally situated in acts of sacrifice.

The one who does not help to keep the wheel of creation in motion by performing one’s duties and obligations, is a selfish person rejoicing in sense pleasures and is a sinful person living in vain. One who does not follow in human life the cycle of sacrifice thus established by the Vedas certainly leads a life full of sin.

Thus there is an obligation for every one to participate in the design of the supreme Being and lead a life of content with the Supreme Being. Such a person is a self realized person with no selfish interest whatsoever in what he is doing.

3.19-24

Without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty. Therefore, Arjuna, always perform your duty efficiently and without any selfish attachment to the results, because by doing work without attachment one attains Supreme.

King Janaka and others attained perfection of Self-realization by selfless service (Karma-yoga) alone. You should also perform your duty for the welfare of the society. Because whatever noble persons do, others follow. Whatever standard they set up, the world follows.

O Arjuna, there is nothing in the three worlds that should be done by Me and there is no work prescribed for Me. Nor there is anything unobtained that I should obtain. Yet I engage in action.

Because, if I do not engage in action relentlessly, O Arjuna, people would follow My path in everyway. These worlds would perish if I do not work.

3.25-26

As the ignorant work with attachment to the fruits of work, so the wise should work without attachment, for the welfare of the society and for the same leading people to the right path.

The wise and the enlightened should inspire others by performing all works efficiently without selfish attachment.

3.27-33

The forces of nature created by Me also do their duties. The one who knows the truth about the role of the forces of Nature in getting work done. Many times, it is the forces of Nature that get their work done by using our organs as their instruments. To the extent you do your duty, it is not you who is doing that, it is the forces of nature that gets the job done by you. To the extent you refuse to do your duty or do a non-duty, it is you who is acting and taking the blame.

Do your duty dedicating all works to God in a spiritual frame of mind free from desire, attachment, and mental grief.

Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight.

Those who always practice this teaching of Mine with faith and are free from evil become free from the bondage of Karma. But those who carp at this teaching and do not practice it, consider them ignorant, senseless, and lost.

3.34-35

Do not be attached to your emotions and feelings. Your emotions and feelings remain in the senses. Your attachments and aversions are two major stumbling blocks on the path of your Self-realization.

Arise and discharge your prescribed duties.

3.36-41

Arjuna said:

O Krishna, what impels one to commit sin as if unwillingly and forced against one's will?

Lord Krishna said:

It is passion. From the passion, the desire is born. This desire is known variedly as lust, greed, etc. And that desire becomes anger when the desire is not fulfilled. Passion in the form of desire and anger are greatest evils. Know this as the greatest enemy.

What this desire does? . You don’t want to commit a sin, but yet you do. Because this passion and desire covers and blocks your self knowledge, as the smoke covers the fire, the dust covers the mirror and amnion covers the embryo. Thus the Self-knowledge gets covered by different degrees of this insatiable desire, the eternal enemy of the wise.

Where does this desire reside? It resides in your senses, the mind and even on the intellect. It just deludes a person by covering and hiding his self knowledge.

Therefore, O Arjuna, it is necessary to destroy this desire that destroys your Self-knowledge and Self-realization.

3.42-43

The senses are said to be superior to the body, the mind is superior to the senses, the intellect is superior to the mind, Soul is superior to the intellect, and the Spiritual knowledge is superior to Soul.
Thus, the important thing is to achieve spiritual knowledge. By achieving Spiritual knowledge, you can use your intellect to control your mind and the emotions arising in your senses, the most important of which is desire.