श्रीमद्भगवद्गीताShrimad Bhagavad Gita 📖 Read as a flipbook

Bhagavad Gita · Karma YogaChapter 3, Shloka 29 (3.29)

Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्

प्रकृतेर्गुणसम्मूढाः सज्जन्ते गुणकर्मसु
तानकृत्स्नविदो मन्दान् कृत्स्नविन्न विचालयेत्
॥ 3.29 ॥

prakṛterguṇasammūḍhāḥ sajjante guṇakarmasu
tānakṛtsnavido mandān kṛtsnavinna vicālayet

Translation

"Those deluded by the gunas of prakriti become attached to the actions of the gunas; the one who knows fully should not unsettle those slow people of incomplete knowledge."

Interpretation

Two kinds of people. Akṛtsna-vid — one who knows partly; kṛtsna-vit — one who knows fully. The responsibility of the one who knows fully: not to confuse the one who knows partly.

Shankaracharya: deluded people think — vayaṃ karma kurmaḥ phalāya — "we act for the fruit". They are karma-phala-mātra-darśinaḥ — those who see only the fruit of action. Kṛtsnavid ātmavid — the full knower, the knower of the self — should na vicālayet them (not unsettle them) — buddhi-bheda-karaṇam eva cālanam — to unsettle is precisely to cause buddhi-bheda (confusion of understanding); he should not do it.

Acharya Ramanuja — why karma-yoga alone is their path. They have set out for the vision of the self, but being bound up with prakriti they are deluded by the gunas and cling to activities, not to the self in its distinct nature — so they are not fit for jnana-yoga; karma-yoga eva teṣām adhikāraḥ (karma-yoga alone is what they are eligible for). If the wise one were to sit in jnana-yoga himself, these people, who imitate the great, would become pracalita-manasaḥ — wavering in mind — about karma-yoga. So the great one should himself remain in karma-yoga, contemplating the non-agency of the self, and show that karma-yoga eva ātmāvalokane nirapekṣa-sādhanam — karma-yoga is an independent means to the vision of the self.

AI-assisted draft translation — under review.

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