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Consider all activities as offering to the Teacher. Once all actions stand offered to the Teacher, what can survive to cause ownership or possessiveness? Through renunciation or offering, the whole actions get away from the actor, the one who does them.

Dear and blessed souls:

Harih Om Tat Sat.

One is made to act by Nature

In the next verse (3.27) Krishna exposes a profound secret about the ‘I’, knowing which one can attain the highest freedom.

In the matter of performing activity, none has any option at all. It is the grand Nature through its three qualities (guṇas) sattva, rajas and tamas, that induces and compels all beings to be active. Body generates hunger and we appease it with food, which nourishes the body and builds energy, leading to further activities. This process is not within any one’s option or will.

Nature has a universal orbit, and the whole creation comes under it. All beings with their activities come under the grip and grace of Nature. Where is then any question or scope for anyone to escape Nature’s hold? This is true for all beings, including animals and plants.

If any one feels he is a doer, and all his actions rest on his own will, wish and option, it is sheer delusion, caused by the ego in him. Ego makes him think he is doing. Actually, he does not do anything at all. Is the heart beat under one’s option? What about the bellowing of lungs? As these are, so are the visible, physical activities as well. One is always made to act by Nature.

None has any claim on doership

So, “Arjuna”, asks Krishna, “where is the question of you or anyone else feeling and saying ‘I am the doer’ at all? The eyes shaped by the foetus in the mother’s womb, are what see; the ears shaped within, are what hear. In fact, no organ has been designed by any one, to enable him to say that he is doing anything all by himself. Any notion about doer-ship or actor-hood is totally baseless, meaningless. It is a sheer prattle. The earlier you drop it, the better.”

In the next verse (3.28), Krishna confirms that the Knower of Truth probes into the whole subject deeply and discerns how Nature’s guṇas (qualities) alone shape one’s tendencies and instigations, which, in turn, manifest as visible activities. The body and senses, being an inert, material aggregate, cannot by themselves do any act at all. Mind and intelligence have to enliven them; only then they generate various tendencies and instigations. This inner process is not under any one’s option.

The inner plane, which is the source of everything, is invisible, even inaccessible to our senses. Tendencies sprout from within and then arouse and display activities. The connection between the two is inward, subtle, impersonal. We cannot see the working of the mind and intelligence, as we notice the external, objective phenomena. Only the resultant of the inner working is visible in the form of physical activities.

Nature alone pulls & pushes inwardly

So, Nature’s qualities, namely sattva, rajas and tamas, working in our inner plane alone trigger activities, resulting in interactions with the objects around. Consequently, none has full control or choice in the matter. Know this as a fact of our life. It is Nature that subtly pulls and pushes inwardly, causing all external exertions.

Think well. You see because of your eyes, hear due to your ears, smell solely due to your nose. So too, you taste because of the tongue, touch by the skin. But for these organs, neither sights and sounds nor smells nor tastes and touches can ever be felt by anyone. Think, can the blind, see? The deaf cannot hear either. Nonetheless, the human in them is intact. Do they not still exist as beings? For, the inner personality is distinct.

Activity – a play of Nature’s tendencies

Identify activity as an inter-play between Nature’s inner tendencies and external organs and objects. Be a disowner always. Have no delusional clinging to any act or whatever it brings about. This is the spiritual, enlightened vision, which brings freedom, instils peace and harmony.

The entire spiritual analysis is meant to explore within oneself and unearth the truth of life. All this is for what? To resolve the problems you face in life, making it easy, natural, strong and sustainable, despite whatever takes place. When the mind and intelligence become light, clear and stable, the whole life becomes effective, efficient and fulfilling.

Miss not the inner plane, its potential

Krishna hurries to sound his caution (3.29) that nature and its qualities, prakṛti-guṇas, are so powerful that they delude people in general. Many are unable to think of anything besides their physical body and senses. They fail to know that the body is all matter, made as it is of the food we consume. Hence it is fully inert without any innate potential to cause experience and knowledge.

Thus, they miss to think of anything subtler and sentient like the mind and intelligence, inside their body. The reason is that they are not thoughtful. They are overwhelmed by their bodily needs like food, shelter and clothing. With these they feel sufficient. They fail to recognize the thinking and understanding part of their personality, which employs the body and senses every time.

Neither agitate nor dislodge the deluded

The delusion our body causes is so sweeping. People are overtaken by the guṇas and karmas prakṛti causes through the body and senses. Is there anything within the body, what is mind, what is intelligence, should we not employ these properly and discern matters carefully? Questions or enquiries like these do not occur to the deluded.

Yet they are part of the huge society. They also have their share in the overall productivity. So, their place cannot be – should not be – discounted or devalued. Maybe they are deluded, but they do believe in physical activity and the outcome it brings. Krishna says that the Knowers should leave them to their ways, being careful not to do anything that may upset their belief in and addiction to work.

Let the activity part of the world and creation be left unhindered. True enlightenment, namely the pursuit of knowledge with the evaluation it brings, is not obviously meant for all. This fact should be considered in all its wholeness and relevance. The order of the world should not be disturbed or intercepted. This is important. Knowledge, its pursuit, is for those who are ripe for it, who, enriched by it, will shine with greater sublimity and splendour every time.

Having diverted to discuss the socio-individual link and the beneficial, sovereign outlook the Knower should have, Krishna comes back to the main subject of discussion, namely Arjuna’s need to remain vibrantly active, not thinking of abandoning activity. But Arjuna is still overwhelmed by the exclusive jñāna-niṣṭhā, which will take the seeker swiftly to the profuse Self rejoicing exaltation, to the exclusion of all active involvements.

Offer all activities to Me, the Teacher

Thus, in the next verse (3.30) he deftly instils the principle of renunciation into one’s interactional life, thereby removing Arjuna’s fear as well as doubt as to what would happen to his fundamental quest of śreyas.

Krishna’s words are very touching and elevating. Arjuna’s mind has by now become quite sensitive, spiritual and expansive. He understands that within his body is a resourceful mind, with abundant spiritual potential as well as possibility. The mind is no more a material product. It is far above matter. It is divine and spiritual. Krishna exhorts Arjuna thus “to offer all activities, whatever they are, to him, the Teacher” (3.30). When so offered, actions will no more be of the one who does or has done them. They will rest, if at all, with the one to whom their possession has been transmitted, by means of dedication and offering.

“Do this transmission, and leave the matter to the Teacher. Then with no desire and possessiveness about anything whatever, fight well, free of all affectation and resultant agitations. See what follows”, says Krishna.

Renunciation is not physical

The renunciation Krishna enjoins is not at all gross or external. It is only in the mind and intelligence, effected by themselves. Consider all activities as offering to the Teacher. Once all actions stand offered to the Teacher, what can survive to cause ownership or possessiveness? Through renunciation or offering, the whole actions get away from the actor, the one who does them.

Doing alone is his, for soon after anything is done, it goes to the one to whom it is dedicated or offered. Does this not become equal to renunciation, wherein too the things concerned are left by the renouncer. Think well. Spirituality is performing all actions with dexterity, by taking away deftly the ownership of activities, by dedicating everything to the Teacher.

Renunciation – sole message of Gita

The one message of the entire warfield dialogue is renunciation, whether one opts for Karma-yoga or Jñāna-nishthā. But the renunciation Gita lays down is not ‘physical’ at all. Physically nothing can be renounced. For, whatever you leave, will still be somewhere. It does not vanish from the earth. True renunciation is, therefore, ‘attitudinal’, done by the mind and intelligence, through a process of dropping the ownership that somehow lingers within. See how supportively and skilfully Krishna speaks to Arjuna treating his mind and intelligence subtly every time!

Desecrate not this sublime theme

In the next verse (3.31) Krishna strikes a conclusive note, summarizing the discussion on the present subject of inner renunciation. The theme Krishna deals with here is the indispensability of activity in human life and at the same time insightfully avoiding any kind of undesirable effect or bondage for the actor by whatever he does, as Arjuna was apprehending about the colossal war he was to involve himself fully in.

Krishna says those who follow what he says about activity and pursuing one’s active life with the spirit and purpose of renunciation, will be safeguarded from everything they do. But the performers must first have sufficient faith and attention in the matter. Secondly, they should not the least disbelieve or criticize Krishna, for the whole philosophy he propounds for leading an active life in the world.

Outlive rituals and ceremonies

People generally have a dominant belief in rituals and ceremonies. They regard them as the only sublime means to elevate their life and gain divine favours. But Krishna’s stand is quite different. He has already explained emphatically (2.42-44) how ignorance and greed alone govern those addicted to rituals and ceremonies. The real means to purify and divinize one’s life, making it sublime and benevolent, is to lodge oneself in the inner plane and bring purity and renunciation as an abiding note in all one does. This is no ritual or ceremony.

It is verily an inner reformation and refinement, which alone verily counts in enriching and evaluating human life any time. Krishna wants Arjuna to be discreet in absorbing the message and rising above all fascinations for rituals and allied indulgencies. Spiritual gains are truly to be striven for and gained here. They grace the human here and now. The outcome is quite experiential and doubt free.

After hearing whatever Krishna has said and explained, Arjuna has a much better mind and intelligence, which can effectively take to the ego-free state of spiritual renunciation. Krishna wants him to take to this and then get up to fight the war, for which he had come to Kurukshetra and had asked Krishna to drive his horses.