Bhagavad Gita 3.10

[Paramananda das]

Chapter 3: Karma-yoga

TEXT 10

saha-yajnah prajah srstva
purovaca prajapatih
anena prasavisyadhvam
esa vo 'stv ista-kama-dhuk

SYNONYMS

saha—along with; yajñāḥ—sacrifices; prajāḥ—generations; sṛṣṭvā—by creating; purā—anciently; uvāca—said; prajā-patiḥ—the Lord of creatures;anena—by this; prasaviṣyadhvam—be more and more prosperous; eṣaḥ—certainly; vaḥ—your; astu—let it be; iṣṭa—all desirable; kāma-dhuk—bestower.

TRANSLATION

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Viṣṇu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajña [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you all desirable things."

PURPORT

The material creation by the Lord of creatures (Viṣṇu) is a chance offered to the conditioned souls to come back home-back to Godhead. All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Vedic principles are to help us understand this eternal relation as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. The Lord says that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand Him. In the Vedic hymns it is said: patiṁ viśvasyātmeśvaram. Therefore, the Lord of the living entities is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes the Lord as pati in so many ways:

śriyaḥ-patir yajña-patiḥ prajā-patir
dhiyāṁ patir loka-patir dharā-patiḥ
patir gatiś cāndhaka-vṛṣṇi-sātvatāṁ
prasīdatāṁ me bhagavān satāṁ patiḥ

(Bhāg. 2.4.20)

The prajā-pati is Lord Viṣṇu, and He is the Lord of all living creatures, all worlds, and all beauties, and the protector of everyone. The Lord created this material world for the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajñas (sacrifice) for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety. Then after finishing the present material body, they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. By performance of yajña, the conditioned souls gradually become Kṛṣṇa conscious and become godly in all respects. In this age of Kali, the saṅkīrtana-yajña(the chanting of the names of God) is recommended by the Vedic scriptures, and this transcendental system was introduced by Lord Caitanya for the deliverance of all men in this age. Saṅkīrtana-yajña and Kṛṣṇa consciousness go well together. Lord Kṛṣṇa in His devotional form (as Lord Caitanya) is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as follows, with special reference to the saṅkīrtana-yajña:

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇāṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ

"In this age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by performance ofsaṅkīrtana-yajña." (Bhāg. 11.5.29) Other yajñas prescribed in the Vedic literatures are not easy to perform in this age of Kali, but the saṅkīrtana-yajña is easy and sublime for all purposes.

Commentary by Sri Vishvanatha Chakravarthi Thakur of Gaudiya Sampradaya:

Therefore, one with impure heart should perform actions without desire, rather than give up action. Now, if you cannot be desireless in the actions, then you should still perform actions offered to Visnu  with  desire, rather   than  give  up  actions completely. This is explained in seven verses.

Long ago,  along with yajna, Brahma  created  the  creature qualified for offering to Visnu and said, “Increase more and more the population by this dharma or yajna. May this yajna bestow all desired enjoyment (ista kama dhuk).” By this he indicated that they had material desires.

The compound saha-yajna is formed by the rulevopasarjanasya (Panini 6.3.82). The compound saha-yajna is used instead of sa-yajna.

Commentary by Sri Ramanuja of Sri Sampradaya:

3.10 As there is the scriptural text beginning with ‘The Lord of Universe’ (Tai. Na., 11.3), it is justifiable to take the term Prajapati in its wider connotation and interpret it to mean Narayana who is the Lord of all beings, the creator of the universe and the Self of the universe. In the beginning, i.e., during the creation, He, the Lord of beings, saw all beings helpless by their conjunction with beginningless non-conscient matter, bereft of the distinctions of name and form, and submerged in Himself. They were incapable of attaining the major ends of human existence, being almost one with non-conscient matter. He, the supremely compassionate, with a desire to resuscitate them, created them together with sacrifice in order that they might perform sacrifices as His worship and said: ‘By this sacrifice, shall you prosper,’ i.e., multiply and prosper. May this sacrifice fulfil your supreme object of desire called release (Moksa) and also the other desires that are in conformity with it. How, then, should this be done?

Commentary by Sri Sridhara Swami of Rudra Sampradaya:

So we see that not only Lord Krishna is stating this but also according to Prajapati or Brahma the creator of all material beings, that one who performs actions is superior to one who performs no actions. This is being explained in this and the next three verses. The words saha-yagnah-prajah means all progeny in existence in general but specifically the brahmans and ksatriyas who perform worship according to the Vedic scriptures. Verily remembering Lord Krishna and chanting His holy names is yagna or worship and by such sacrifice mankind will flourish and prosper. Here the word yagna means the time sacrificed to do the daily duties offered to the Supreme Lord and other obligatory activities such as following Ekadasi. Although there is no question of praising work that is done with desires it still exhibits that in general actions are better than inertness and lassitude which are more objectionable.

Commentary by Sri Madhvacharya of Brahma Sampradaya:

Sri Madhvacharya did not comment on this sloka.

Commentary by Sri Keshava Kashmiri of Kumara Sampradaya:

Here Lord Krishna reveals the words of Prajapati or Brahma the creator of the forms and categories of material beings and the arranger of the material manifestation. Here it states that one desiring liberation should perform selfless actions with the thought of appeasement and propitiation to the Supreme Lord. Now Lord Krishna is infering that he teaches this knowledge of propitiatiopn to His devotees only. This is because Brahma has given facilty for beings other than the devotees to worship in appeasement lesser gods such as the demi-gods. Thus after Brahma created mankind he instructed the three twice born classes of brahmins, ksatriyas and vaisyas to perform selfless actions in the spirit of worship of the Supreme Lord and this will be for you sacrifice. Sacrifing the desires for reward and attachment to the results and in this way mankind will flourish and prosper. The actual understanding is that this spirit of sacrifice perfromed with faith acording to ones status and stage in life will bequeath all auspiciousness in this life and the next life. Such instructions for such wishfulfilling actions and the confusion that might arise to due to them from statements of non- attachment earlier in this chapter in verses four, seven and seventeen as well as refering to delighting in the atma or soul in this chapter in verses three and nineteen is empasising different approaches to the same goal based on qualification so there is no contradiction.

note some changes has been done to Bhagavad Gita 3.10 I see no need for any of the changes done in this vers  in later editions by the BBT: "Just like a bearer, peon. Somebody has written you letter, the peon has got the letter. It does not mean he has to correct it or edit it or addition or... No. He'll present it. That is his duty. Then he is guru." 

(Srila Prabhupada Lecture)