A common space for harmonic peacemakers

III: 1

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA

THE YOGA OF SERVICE

Verse 1

Arjuna says,

“But, Krishna, if you consider

Knowledge of the Self

Superior to any sort of action,

Why are you telling me

To do these terrible deeds?

Sri Aurobindo:

“Krishna has been teaching the withdrawal of the will from the normal temperament of the sense-seeking lower mind with its ignorance to the desireless, calm unity and serenity of poise in the Self. So much Arjuna has understood. There is no room here for works, since works belong to the ignorance. Action seems to be the very opposite of knowledge. Its seed is desire and its fruit is bondage. This is the orthodox philosophical doctrine. And yet Krishna insists upon works as part of the Yoga, so that there seems to be in this teaching a radical inconsistency. Arjuna faces a task that seems wholly inconsistent with serenity and the motionless peace of the Self-delighted soul: a work terrible and monstrous, a bloody strife, a giant massacre. Arjuna complains that he has been given a confusing teaching, not the clear, strenuously single road by which the human intelligence can move straight and vigorously towards the supreme good. It is in response to Arjuna’s confusion that Krishna begins at once to develop more clearly his teaching on Karma Yoga.”