WHY DO PEOPLE NOT DESIRE LIBERATION?
kaangkshantah karmanaam siddhim yajanta iha devataah
kshipram hi maanushe loke siddhirbhavati karmajaa // 4.12 //
Those who long for success in action in this world worship the Gods, because success is quickly attained by men through action.
Men worship God in this world because they want immediate fruits in terms of pleasures from their activities. Worldly success is much easier of attainment than Self-knowledge which demands perfect renunciation.
ALL ARE NOT BORN EQUAL
chaaturvarnyam mayaa srishtam gunakarma vibhaagashah
tasya kartaaram api maam viddhyakartaaram avyayam // 4.13 //
The fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of Guna and Karma; though I am the author thereof know Me as non-doer and changeless.
This verse explains the diversity of human temperaments and tendencies. All men are not of the same nature because of the preponderance of the different Gunas in them. The caste system was originally meant to make the growth of human society perfect. But this principle later on came to be abused and misused by the society which gave it a totally wrong meaning based on the accident of birth.
On the basis of the temperamental distinctions and the quality of thoughts entertained by the individuals, the entire mankind has been, for the purpose of spiritual study, classified as the four castes or Varnas just as people are divided as professionals, merchants, agriculturists and laborers etc on the basis of activities or vocation pursued by them. For the well being of the society in general each class of people is as important and essential as the other.
Accordingly the four varnas are:
1. Brahmana - where Sattwa (purity, goodness etc.) predominates in thoughts and action.
2. Kshatriya - where Rajas (courage, valor etc.) predominates in thoughts and deeds.
3. Vaishya - where Rajas and Tamas (indolence, ignorance etc.) predominate.
4. Sudra - where Tamas alone predominates.
The Lord is the Creator of the four castes only from the standpoint of maya. Maya is the immediate cause of everything that happens in the relative world. But since maya has no existence independent of the Lord, He is said to be the Creator.
The Lord with reference to the mind and intellect is the creator of the temperaments although in His essential nature He is not the Doer or the Creator because He is the changeless and all-pervading irrespective of what happens in the creation.
ACTION WITHOUT ATTACHMENT DOES NOT LEAD TO BONDAGE
na maam karmaani limpanti na me karmaphale sprihaa
iti maam yo'bhijaanaati karmabhir na sa badhyate // 4.14 //
Actions do not taint Me, nor have I a desire for the fruits of actions. He who knows Me thus is not bound by actions.
Actions do not taint the Lord because He is totally free from egoism. Since He is unselfish, He is not taking rebirths as men to reap the fruit of His actions. Anyone who knows his own inmost Self to be the Lord, unattached to action and its result, is not bound by action and will not be reborn in the world of maya.
Taint and desire can come only to an Ego which is the Self functioning through a given state of mind and intellect. The one who has renounced his identification with his limited ego and rediscovered himself as none other than the Self is no more affected by his actions in the outer world.
evam jnaatwaa kritam karma poorvair api mumukshubhih
kuru karmaiva tasmaat twam poorvaih poorvataram kritam // 4.15 //
Having known this, the ancient seekers after liberation performed action; therefore, you too perform action, as did the ancients in the olden times.
Knowing that the Self can have no desire for the fruits of actions and cannot be tainted or soiled by them and knowing that no one can be tainted if he works without egoism, attachment and expectation of fruits, Arjuna is called upon to do his duty as the ancients like King Janaka and others did in the days of yore. The idea is that the ignorant perform action for self purification, and the wise perform action for the maintenance of the world.
DOCTRINE OF ACTION AND INACTION
kim karma kim akarmeti kavayo'pyatra mohitaah
tat te karma pravakshyaami yajjnaatwaa mokshyase'shubhaat // 4.16 //
What is action? What is inaction? As to this even the wise are perplexed. Therefore, I shall tell you what action is by knowing which you shall be freed from the evil (of Samsara - the wheel of birth and death).
The Lord thus instructed Arjuna to perform action in a disinterested spirit. But one cannot duly perform one’s duty without knowing in reality what constitutes action and what inaction is. Therefore the Lord promises to reveal to Arjuna the truth about action showing its intricate nature and the value of its knowledge in order that Arjuna may really understand the truth about transcendent actions, which are free from the feeling of possession, the sense of doership, attachment and the desire for fruit. Thus the mystery of action is extremely difficult to unravel.
karmano hyapi boddhavyam boddhavyam cha vikarmanah
akarmanashcha boddhavyam gahanaa karmano gatih // 4.17 //
One has to understand what action really is and likewise one has to understand what is forbidden action and also what inaction is. Indeed hard to understand is the way of action.
One must not oversimplify action and inaction by thinking that the former means the activity of the body and the latter its idleness. The definition of these three terms is as under:
1. Action: That which is prescribed in the scriptures and not merely approved by men.
2. Forbidden action: That which is forbidden by the scriptures.
3. Inaction: Renunciation of action.
Activity is the very essence of life. The great Seers of ancient days evaluated the life on the basis of the quality of activities. This is explained in the following chart.