Bhagavatgita a detailed study-chapter3-karmayoga

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7. yaH indhriyaaNi manasaa niyamya aarabhathe arjuna

karmendhriyaiH karmayogam asakthaH sa visishyathe

 

Oh Arjuna,One who controls the indhriyas with his mind and starts karmayoga with his organs of action he excels all.

 

Since it is not possible to stop doing action one should act on but the same actions must be transformed into karmayoga. What ever one has been doing, according to his nature and position, as his duty, should now be done giving up attachment. This is the karmayoga and the first step towards the final freedom from bondage.

 

We should remember that the Gita is meant for the man of the world and not for the recluse. Arjuna wanted to abandon karma which is impossible because he was not mentally ready for it and hence Krishna tells him how to transform the same karma into nishkamakarma.

 

Control of the senses must come from within through the mind. When the indhriyas are controlled it means that the indhriyas will be functioning as before but the impact of the sense objects is not there. When one sees something desirable the eye receives the sensation but it does not affect the mind. This is what is meant by controlling the indhriyas by the mind.

 

One who does the karmayoga with his karmendhriyas with detachment is the karmayogi. But this includes janaendhriyas as well as karmendhriyas cannot function without the former. Jnanendhriyas, namely, eyes, ears, tongue, skin and nose receive the sensations from the sense objects and the karmendhriyas, handa, feet , organs of procreation and excretion, and the tongue (which is both because we speak as well as taste with the tongue) act accordingly.

 

8.niyatham kuru karmathvam karMajyaayo hi akarmaNaH

Sareerayaathraapicha the na prasidDhyeth akarmaNaH

 

You do your obligatory duties because action is better than inaction.. Eve the sustenance of life and body will not be possible for one who does not act.

Krishna rounds up the answer to the question of Arjuna in the first sloka here. He extols karma and says that karma is unavoidable and hence it should not be abandoned. It is not what you do that matters but how you do it. Even a jnani has to act as explained in the previous slokas. Hence Krishna advises Arjuna to go on doing the work which is his svadharma according to his varna and asrama but do it without attachment. How to do this is explained in the subsequent slokas.

 

Niyatham karma is what is ordained by one's nature and station in life. For Arjuna as a kshathriya, fighting for the right cause is the svadharma , the karma natural to his disposition. Hence he could not avoid it. This what was explained in the sloka 5 as kaaryathe hyavasaH karmasarvaH prakrthijaiH gunaih.

 

The word akarma here means merely abandoning action and not in the sense it is used in the next chapter. In Gits the words are to be understood according to the context because the terms such as yoga and h brahma are used in different sense in different contexts.