Bhagavad Gita 3.8

[Paramananda das]

TEXT 8

niyatam kuru karma tvam karma jyayo hy akarmanah sarira-yatrapi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmanah

SYNONYMS

niyatam--prescribed; kuru--do; karma--duties; tvam--you; karma--work; jyayah--better; hi--than; akarmanah--without work; sarira--bodily; yatra--maintenance; api--even; ca--also; te--your; na--never; prasiddhyet--effected; akarmanah--without work.

TRANSLATION

Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work.

PURPORT

There are many pseudo-meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Krsna did not want Arjuna to become a pretender, but that he perform his prescribed duties as set forth for ksatriyas. Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder ksatriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the heart of a mundane man and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one's body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without purification of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratification. Such polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist, renouncing work and living at the cost of others.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

Therefore you should engage in daily obligatory activities such as sandhya vandana (niyatam karma). This is better that renunciation of these actions (karma sannyasa). By renunciation of all actions you will not even be able to maintain your body.

Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya: Visnuswami Sridhara Swami's Commentary One  should  perform  the  duties  prescribed  in   the   Vedic   scriptures appropriate  for  ones  stage  in  life.  The  daily  duties  like  praying, meditating and worshipping are being referred to by Lord Krishna. Action  is superior to inaction for by abstention from action none of these  activities can be accomplished. What to say of those, if  one  fails  to  take  actions even the maintenance of their physical body will not be possible.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya: Madhvacarya Madhvacarya's Commentary One  should  perform  the  actions  that  are  appropriate  to  one's  varna or status and ashram or stage in life.  In  Vedic  culture  there  are  four varnas:  brahmin the priestly  class,  kshatriya  the  royalty  and  warrior class, vaishya the farmers and businesss classes and sudra the  workers  and servants of the previous three classes. In  Vedic  culture  there  are  also four ashrams: bramacharya which is celibate student life, grihasta which  is married family life, vanaprastha which is semi-retired householder life  and sannyasa which is complete renunciation of worldy  life  for  meditation  on God. Due to changing times and the  unseemly  mixture  of  different  varnas people no longer adhere exclusively to the natural duties  of  their  ashram as prescribed by the Vedas. This was even happening over 5000 years  ago  at the end Dvarpara yuga. In the Mahabharata we  see  King  Yudhisthira  noting that it was becoming exceedingly difficult to determine the varna of  people due to the mixture of different classes. Therefore it  is  only  by  conduct and attributes that one can judge what class one belongs to and  not  simply by what varna one was born into and this conduct is determined  by  actions. Unless and until the impulse arises for one to surrender themselves in  full service and devotion to the Supreme Lord Krishna then both varna and  ashram apply in society. But  after  surrendering  in  devotion  varnashram  is  no longer applicable or required.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya: Ramanuja Ramanuja's Commentary The word nityatam can refer to eternal, regular or even  daily.  An  act  is eternal if it is connected to the atma which is the eternal  soul.   Actions merely connected to  prakriti  or  the  material  nature  are  a  persistent inheritance from one's past activities in the unknown past. Thus to  perform actions comes easily as a natural phenomena and not subject to the  inherent dangers  of  possessing  an  impure  mind  or  the  lack  of  sense  control associated the with jnana yoga,  the  cultivation  of  spiritual  knowledge. Therefore Lord Krishna is urging Arjuna to perform  karma  yoga  or  actions without attachment as in his case it is superior to  cultivating  knowledge. A-karma is non-action which implies cultivating knowledge by the  abstention of activities. But it is  known  that  it  is  not  possible  to  completely achieve the actionless state.  Even for the  followers  of  jnana  yoga  the path of karma yoga is superior because in jnana yoga one must follow a  path one is naturally not accustomed, is difficult to practice, fraught with  the risk of dominant senses  and  also  which  does  not  flow  as  an  inherent tendency like the path of  karma  yoga  where  actions  follow  the  natural locomotion of the body in the course of daily activities. Further  it  will  be  shown  that  even  one  who  is  liberated  by  atma- tattva realisation of the eternal soul; still may be  involved  in  so  many activities, performing actions without attachment or as a  matter  of  duty. Thus even atma-tattva can be connected to material  activities  transforming them to spiritual activities. Hence karma yoga can be superior in this  way. What can be inferred about the superiority of karma  yoga  over  jnana  yoga will be evident to one who is actually engaged in practising jnana yoga. But an alternative argument could be alright suppose one  is  determined  to abstain from all actions, then how does one expect to maintain their  bodily existence which depends on eating and sleeping and  washing  and  exercising etc. and by which the body is very helpful and useful in  practising   jnana yoga. The maintenance of one's physical  body  is  absolutely  essential  to complete the course charted in life until one achieves their goal.  The  way in which one maintains their body is by actions such as labour  by  rightful means to acquire funds for performing worship to God by  offerings  of  food which are subsequently imbued with spiritual potency  and  by  partaking  of the remnants of such foods solely for bodily sustenance  each  day  maintain their bodies. In the Chandogya Upanisad VII.XXVI.II we find: It is by the purity  of  food that one's mind becomes purified. When the  mind  is  purified  one  attains access to the eternal soul dwelling within the heart. Thus if one desires to desist  from  all  activities  how  will  their  mind become purified  and how will their bodily needs be maintained? Thus  it  is obvious that one who practices jnana yoga in order to maintain their  bodily existence must still continue performing the  daily  and  occasional  duties prescribed in the Vedas until they reach their goal.  The  same  as  if  one practised karma yoga. Also in karma yoga the  contemplation  of  atma-tattva is also included in the conceptions that I am not my body perfoming  actions and I am not the actual doer of any actions. So for all these reasons  karma yoga is preferably recommended to jnana yogis. So the conclusion is for Arjuna to desist and practice karma yoga. But if it is still postulated that actions such as the  acquiring  of  funds involves the my-ness  of this is my money and the I-ness of  I  have  earned this by the strength of my mind and the  power  of  my  faculties  and  that these efforts must cause bondage Lord Krishna refutes this argument  in  the next verse.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary One should note that by  the  use  of  tvam  Lord  Krishna  is asserting that Arjuna should be detached from his actions  and perform his duty. Action is superior to  inaction  because  by performing  actions  prescribed  in   the   Vedic   scriptures according to  one’s  occupation  and  stage  in  life  because accumalated sins are destroyed that one has acquired  in  past lives.  Realistically  not  performing  actions  is  also  not practical because without actions one  is  not  able  even  to maintain the physical body. The particle api  means  even  and refers to what else more should be clarified.

Thus ends commentaries of chapter 3, verse 8 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita. Ch 3 Verse 8

niyatam kuru karma tvam / karma jyayo hy akarmanah
sharira-yatrapi ca te / na prasidhyed akarmanah

Click here to read Shrila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita As It Is 3.8 /u>http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/3/8/en>

tvam---you; kuru---must perform; karma---duties; niyatam--- under regulation of shastra (sandhya and upasana); hi---certainly; karma---action; jyayah---is better; akarmanah---than inaction; ca---and; api---even; te---your; sharira---bodily; yatra---maintenance; na prasidhyet---can not be effected; akarmanah---without work.

Perform your prescribed duties such as sandhya and upasana, because action ( karma) is better than inaction ( akarma). If you refrain from action, you will not even be able to maintain your body.

SARARTHA-VARShINI
BY ShRILA VIShVANATHA CAKRAVARTI THAKURA

"Therefore, O Arjuna, perform your nitya-karma (regulated duties) such as sandhya (morning, noon and evening prayers) and upasana (worship). It is better to do so than to renounce karma (akarmanah). If you give up all karma, you will not even be able to maintain your body."

SARARTHA-VARShINI PRAKAShIKA-VRiTTI
BY ShRILA BHAKTIVEDANTA NARAYANA MAHARAJA

The above statement is verified in Chandogya Upanishad (7.26.2):

ahara-shuddhau sattva-shuddhih
sattva-shuddhau dhruva smritih
smriti-lambhe sarvagranthinam vipramokshah

It is by the purity of food that one's mind becomes purified and sattvika. When the mind is purified, one attains a stable memory. When the memory is stable, all the knots of the heart are untied. Furthermore it is stated in Gita (3.13):

bhunjate te tv agham papa / ye pacanty atma-karanat

It is understood from this and other statements that for the perfection of one's sadhana, it is necessary to maintain and protect the body, which is essential for the performance of one's sva-dharma (prescribed duties). However, those who impetuously give up all action by taking sannyasa do not see the light of knowledge in their impure hearts. Moreover, if they perform no work at all, they can even leave their bodies due to lack of maintenance.