• Arjuna. Thou whom all mortals praise, Janardana!
• 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!
• 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 paths
• Shown to this world; two schools of wisdom. First
• The Sankhya's, which doth save in way of works
• Prescribed by reason; next, the Yog, 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.
• 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,
• 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
• Is honourable. 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
• The faithful soul; such earthly duty do
• Free from desire, and thou shalt well perform
• Thy heavenly purpose. Spake Prajapati-
• In the beginning, when all men were made,
• And, with mankind, the sacrifice- "Do this!
• Work! sacrifice! Increase and multiply
• With sacrifice! This shall be Kamaduk,
• Your 'Cow of Plenty,' giving back her milk
• Of all abundance. Worship the gods thereby;
• The gods shall yield thee grace. Those meats ye
• The gods will grant to Labour, 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
• 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;
• Thus action is of Brahma, 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,
• 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
• Depends from him. 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!
• 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 Pritha! in the three wide worlds
• 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
• 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
• 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
• In interaction of the quahties.
• 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,
• 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;
• 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,
• 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:
• 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.
• 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.
• Arjuna. Yet tell me, Teacher! by what force doth man
• Go to his ill, unwilling; as if one
• Pushed him that evil path?
• Krishna. Kama it is!
• Passion it is! born of the Darknesses,
• 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
• 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!
• 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
• 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!
• Fight! vanquish foes and doubts, dear Hero! slay
• What haunts thee in fond shapes, and would betray!

HERE ENDETH Chapter III OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Karma-Yog," Or "The Book of Virtue in Work."