The Bhagavad-Gita.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Chapter III
ARJUNA:
THOU whom all mortals praise, Janârdana! |
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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! | 5 |
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 two paths |
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Shown to this world; two schools of wisdom. First | |
The Sânkhy’s, which doth save in way of works | 10 |
Prescribed 1 by reason; next, the Yôg, 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. | 15 |
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, | 20 |
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 | 25 |
Is honorable. 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 | 30 |
The faithful soul; such earthly duty do | |
Free from desire, and thou shalt well perform | |
Thy heavenly purpose. Spake Prajâpati— | |
In the beginning, when all men were made, | |
And, with mankind, the sacrifice—“Do this! | 35 |
Work! sacrifice! Increase and multiply | |
With sacrifice! This shall be Kamadûk, | |
Your ‘Cow of Plenty,’ giving back her milk | |
Of all abundance. Worship the gods thereby; | |
The gods shall yield ye grace. Those meats ye crave | 40 |
The gods will grant to Labor, 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 | 45 |
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; | 50 |
Thus action is of Brahmâ, 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, | 55 |
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 | 60 |
Depends from him. 2 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! | 65 |
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 Prithâ! in the three wide worlds | 70 |
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 | 75 |
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 | 80 |
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 | 85 |
In interaction of the qualities. | |
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, | 90 |
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; | 95 |
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, | 100 |
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; | 105 |
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. | 110 |
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. | 115 |
ARJUNA:
Yet tell me, Teacher! by what force doth man |
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Go to his ill, unwilling; as if one | |
Pushed him that evil path? | |
KRISHNA:
Kama it is! |
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Passion it is! born of the Darknesses, | 120 |
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 | 125 |
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! | 130 |
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 | 135 |
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! | 140 |
Fight! vanquish foes and doubts, dear Hero! slay | |
What haunts thee in fond shapes, and would betray! | |
Here endeth Chapter III. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ |
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entitled “Karma-Yôg,” or “The Book |
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of Virtue in Work” |
145 |
Note 1. I feel convinced sânkhyânân and yoginân must be transposed here in sense. [back] |
Note 2. I am doubtful of accuracy here. [back] |