Bhagavatgita a detailed study-chapter3-karmayoga

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30. mayi sarvaaNi karmaaNi sannyasya aDhyaathmachethasaa

niraaSeeah nirmamo bhoothvaa yuDhyasva vigathajvaraH

By offering all actions to Me with the mind engrossed in the self, fight on without anxiety, without expectation and ego-centric impulses.

Krishna here starts to reply to the plea of Arjuna in the second sloka `yath Sreyo niSchitham broohi,' asking Krishna to tell him what was good for him. In the sloka 28 Krishna said that the wise are not affected by knowing, guNaaH guNeshu varthanatha, that the gunas inside are interacting with gunas outside.

What is meant by `gunaaguneshu varthantha?' When one gets anger he thinks "I am angry" and does not say that his anger is the interplay of rajas and thamas in him towards those outside When one learns to stand apart and views his actions as an outsider he will be aware of the gunas, the constituents of his body and mind, moving among those of the sense objects outside, producing the various emotions, with which he identifies himself.

How to cultivate the attitude `gunaaguneshu varthantha?

 

Krishna shows the way to do this

"Dedicate all your actions to Me," He says "with your mind fixed on Me, the self of all, thus freed from desire and ego, act on in the world."

The word yuDhyasava though meaning `fight on,' implies all actions.

By Mayi sarvaaNi karmaaNi sannyasya Krishna means that one should give up the sense of agency and desire for fruit but should do everything as an offering to God. When a servant does the work of his master he does it well to the best of his ability but is not anxious about the result and does not think that he is the doer but only executes the order of his master. What he gets out of it is the will of the master.

aDhyaathmachethasaa- with mind engrossed in the self , meaning, in the self of all, the inner self of the individual self, that is the Lord.

niraSeeH – without expectation of the result, that is , giving up the desire for the result.

nirmamaH- without egoistic impulses. When one sheds the sense of agency there is no more ego.

vigathajvaraH- without anxiety for the result.

This can be illustrated by an example cited by Sri Ramakrishna.

A servant maid takes care of her ward in the best manner possible with involvement but she is not anxious and simply does it as her duty and once she goes back to her house she no more worries about it. Also while she was doing her work her mind is always with her child she had left behind. Like this one's mind should always be engaged in the thought of the Lord.