Upanishads state that work or knowledge alone by itself is not sufficient to attain moksa or liberation. A bird cannot fly by one wing only. Karma and jnana are the two wings with which an aspirant can fly to heaven.

3.4: Neither because man does not start an action, he gains Niaskarmyam (abandonment of action), nor because he renounces action, he gains Siddhim (perfection).

Noninitiation of action does not mean freedom from action. Renunciation of action does not mean attainment of perfection.

As mentioned above in my comments, a true "renunciate" (Sannyasin) is the one who relinquishes fruits of an action without relinquishing the action itself. Desirelessness (vairāgya) is one of the cardinal signs of a yogi. Yogi’s qualities are eight in all: abstention, observance, postures, breath-control, withdrawal of senses, fixed attention or concentration, contemplation or meditation, and superconsciousness or samādhi.

    Exemplary behavior consists of “ahimsa, truth, honesty, continence, and rejection of gifts.” Yogi climbs all five steps, before he can gain samādhi; inaction is as much a dereliction of duty, as performance of action with expectation of a reward in the mind. Duty is work according to caste by birth, or that performed in conformance with one’s training, or that one agreed to perform, or that in a religious setting.

3.5: No one, (for sure) even for a moment, remains without doing some action. All people surrender against their free will (avasah) to the gunas of nature, which induce them to action.

Gunas of Prakriti: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas or Virtue, Passion and Darkness)

Each one of us is a body of our biological processes; biological functions go on with or without knowledge. Read commentary on Verse 12 Chapter 2 for more information on prakriti and gunas. Men fall into three classes according to their gunas: The one with goodness or Sattva guna is a Sura; the one with passion or Rajas is an Asura and one with Tamas (ignorance or Avidya) is a Raksasa. Sura is god or godlike, Asura is demonic, and Raksasa is devilish. Man has one dominant guna with varying amounts of the other two gunas; for example, perfected yogi is mostly Sattvic with little Rajas or Tamas.

3.6: The foolish man (vi-mūdha-atma), who curbs his sense organs for outward show, but thinks about the sense objects in his mind, is a (mithya-acāra) deceitful teacher.

Vi-mūdha-atma: perplexed, foolish, or confused man

3.7:   The one, who restrains his senses by his mind, and begins, O Arjuna, his karma yogam (Yoga of action) without attachment to sense organs, is superior (and unsurpassed). 

3.8:  You should do your work as prescribed to you (by the sacred texts), for action is better than inaction. By inaction, even upkeep of the body is not attainable.

3.9: Except for the work done in the spirit (for the sake) of sacrifice (yajna), karma binds all other work done in this world. O Kaunteya (Arjuna), the son of Kunti, you perform your actions without attachment in good faith for the sake of sacrifice.

Yajna means sacrifice and can mean Vishnu, the Lord. In a pure spiritual sense, all actions without attachment are sacrifices and we are mere instruments in the hands of the Lord Vishnu. Actions without expectation of a reward become sacrifices to the Lord. Such actions have no taint and therefore have no bondage. Yajna by itself has undergone transformation and evolution from the first mention or observance to the time of Bhagavad Gita. In BG, Sri Bhagavan says that a sacrificer does not expect a reward. Duty is work according to one’s birth-Varna, training, or religious vows. Bondage means that it has a load of karma attached to it. See elsewhere on karma, inflows into subtle body, and the ways to unload this karma and bring it to a zero-sum point (the perfect karma). 

You heard about “No Deposit, No Return.” As long as you do not deposit (no karmic inflows into the subtle body), there is no return to this world as a transmigratory being. 

3.10:   Once upon a time (Time of creation), the lord of creatures created men and sacrifice and said, “By this, you bring forth more and more and let it yield the milk of your desires (Kāmadhuk).”

Prajāpati: Lord of the creatures, Brahma

Kāmadhuk = Milking one's desires, granting every desired object

Once upon a time, there was a cow by name Kāmadhenu, a cow of plenty, a heavenly cow granting all desires. According to Gandhi, the sacrifice meant in this verse is not mental work but physical labor, dedicated to Sri Krishna in a spirit of selfless service, which will free us from evil and bondage.

3.11: The gods have cherished you by sacrifices and you will cherish them in return. By mutually cherishing each other, you will gain the supreme good.

3.12:  Since gods are pleased with you because of your sacrifices, the gods will grant you desired enjoyments. He who enjoys these gifts without giving them (reciprocation) to gods in return is certainly a thief.

3.13:  The virtuous, who eat the remnants of food offerings in sacrifice, will gain release from all sins, but the sinners who prepare food to sustain their own bodies, eat sin.

The virtuous eat the remnants of the sacrifice and gain release from all sins. The sinners who prepare and eat food to sustain their bodies eat sin.

See comments under verse 15. It is the custom to offer food as sacrifice and then eat it. The food that we eat consists of three parts: “the coarse, the middle and the subtle” according to Chandogya Upanishad. The coarse part becomes feces, the middle part becomes flesh, and the subtle part becomes mind. (They had an idea of subtle food nourishing the brain. Brain needs glucose for its function. I assume glucose is subtle food. Muscles need protein for its growth, meaning middle part.)

3.14:  From food come the living creatures. From the rains comes the food. From sacrifice come the rains. From work comes sacrifice.

Work is sacrifice; sacrifice brings rains; rains grow food and food sustains the living creatures.

Work…sacrifice… rains…food…living creatures. Food contains the three elements: fire, water, and earth. In Upanishads, you will find many triads. For example, Gunas: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas.

3.15:  Know thou that karma originates from Brahma. Brahma originates from the imperishable; therefore, all-pervading Brahma stands steadfast in sacrifice.

Sacrifice is giving a little of oneself: it is giving something that has value; it is giving up one’s advantage for a higher purpose; and therefore, it has a worshipful component. Brahma is the source of sacrifice, rains, food, and living entities. It is only natural that everybody enjoys the bounty from the original source, and that sharing is a part of the sacrifice. Brahma is the womb of the universe for all living entities. Brahma is action; from action, sacrifices and karma are born. Brahma is the same as Prakriti. See Chapter 2 verse 12 for explanation. Brahma, after living inside for a year, came out splitting open the Egg into two half-shells; the silver half became earth; the golden half became the sky; the membranes became mountains and clouds; the veins became the rivers; and the fluid became the sea. Brahman is different from Brahma, Vedic Brahmana, Brahmana, or Brahmins of the priestly class: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva form the Hindu holy trinity; Vedic Brahmana are texts giving details of sacrifices, philosophy, rules, and conduct expected of priests; the Brahman is numinous, Supreme, and the Absolute; It is Reality and it is  Satchidananda (Sat-Chit-Ananda: Being, consciousness, and bliss)

3.16: He, who in this world, does not follow the wheel (of sacrifice) set in motion thus, enjoys the sense objects, lives a life of sin, and lives in vain, O Partha (Arjuna).

3.17: He, who finds pleasure, satisfaction, and contentment in the self, does not have any work that needs completion.

He, who finds pleasure, satisfaction, and contentment in the self, does not have any unfinished work.

Atmarati: Pleasure in the self. Atmatrupta: Satisfaction in the self. Samtushta: Contentment.

3.18:   For him, there is no advantage in action. In addition, there is no advantage in inaction. He does not need any being (in the whole universe) for his shelter or purpose.

Arthah: Advantage, purpose. Artha+vyapāsraya: purpose and shelter.

This liberated man, whose self is perfect, has nothing to gain or lose by action or inaction; and thus he is happy and contented with self, freed from dualities: he found the light within his spiritual heart. His jivatma (the individual soul) and Paramatma (the Supreme Soul) are like two birds, which found each other and remain in perfect harmony. His jivatma gave up eating fruits (actions without expectation of rewards) longtime ago and it is in unison with Paramatma: He is a true sanyasin. 

3.19: Therefore, do the work that has to be done with skill, always without attachment; man, who performs action without attachment to fruit, gains the Supreme (Param).

Let us pay a little attention to work with and without attachment, action and inaction, sacrifice, gift, duty, and karma. Work done expecting reward does not carry any merit; further, work done in self-interest or self-aggrandizement is even worse. Sacrifice is giving a little of oneself and something of value, and yielding one's advantage to the needy for a higher purpose, and has a worshipful component. Giving gift to the needy and deserving is superior and expectation of a reward for work is inferior. Action is part of life and therefore unavoidable. Gunas condition action. Sattvic actions are the best; inaction is idleness and has no merit. Reaction can be negative, positive, or neutral: A sattvic reaction is meritorious, Rajasic reaction is destructive, and Tamasic reaction has no merit.

Duty is work according to one's ordain or birth-varna, or training. Duty has a dharmic ingredient and is performance of work as it applies to one’s station in life. Failure to perform one's duty has no merit. Duty, sacrifice, Sattvic karma, and work done without attachment take man to the Supreme.

3.20:  Certainly, by work done without attachment, Janaka and others gained perfection. You should also do work, for the welfare or maintenance (Lokasamgraha) of the world.

Lokasamgraha:  In the days of Rg Veda, Vedic communities cleared forests for offering sacrifices. This clearing, open to the sun, received the name Loka, which means world.

King Janaka, belonging to the solar dynasty, was the king of Mithila, and his birth was unusual. Janaka’s father, Nimi, asked the most famous priest, Vasistha, to officiate as the sacrificial priest. Since Vasistha was also the officiating priest for Indra, the Lord of the clouds, rain, thunder, and so asked Nimi to wait until he completes the sacrificial ceremony for Indra. Nimi would not wait and so appointed another priest to perform yajna. Vasistha became angry and laid a curse on the king Nimi, saying the king’s body would fall down dead. Before the curse could take effect, king Nimi countercursed the priest, Vasistha, saying that the same fate would fall on the priest. Both fell down dead. Vasistha was born again in the world. King Nimi’s sacrificial ceremony went well, though the king was dead. The Rishis in attendance begged the visiting gods to revive the king, who refused to be born in this world with the material body. The Rishis ordered the royal attendants to use chemicals to preserve the body. Since the king refused to be born again, the Rishis churned the dead body and produced Janaka.

 He was the father of Sita, found fully formed in the furrow, plowed by the king in a sacrificial ritual to get a child. He was a pious and just ruler who performed many sacrifices, which helped him gain perfection or Siddhi. He was an exemplar of karma yoga; he practiced what he taught to his subjects. Janaka's daughter Sita married Sri Rama of Ramāyāna.

3.21: Whatever a great man does, the other people do. Whatever example he sets, humankind follows.

An average person emulates whatever a great man does. His actions are the only authority, which the whole world follows.

An average person is not knowledgeable or spiritual enough to set his own path to realization. The ordinary person looks up great and accomplished men for direction and instructions. Deeds of great men speak louder and clearer than an inspiring speech. These great men are responsible for sattvic changes in society. These follow-the-leader examples are common in religion, science, and politics. Sometimes the greatness of a man is not obvious during his lifetime , because he is way ahead of the crowd; the realized great men are exemplars, who have seen the light of wisdom. The light here refers to the light of the Soul in the spiritual heart. Ramana Maharishi said, “For the body-bound fools, the heart of flesh exists in the left chest.” The Heart (Hrdayam) known to the seers as the seat of the Soul shines on the right side of the chest pervading and transcending both inside and outside. The Guru, who tells his disciple “Do this or that,” is no Guru, but the real Guru is the one who directs the disciple to “Who am I.”  “Am I the body or am I the soul?” The body is in the Self and not the other way round. Ramana goes on to explain this point: the screen in the movie house is not (not part of) in the celluloid. The screen captures the moving images projected from the celluloid. In this allegory, the screen represents the Self and the images represent the body, meaning the body needs the Self for its reflection and the Self is not in the body. If there is no Self, there is no projection of the body. [The screen is not (neither part of, nor intrinsic to) in the celluloid]. The moving images (of the body) on the screen (of a Soul) are the drama of this material life. The spiritual Heart (of a screen) is not part of the body (of images): The spirit and the body are separate and the latter needs the former for sustenance. The realized souls, by their yoga, have received revealed knowledge. Another way of looking at it is the projected moving images of the body do not affect the screen of a SOUL or SELF. The flood does not wet it and the fire does not burn it. There are such perfect exemplars in all religions. 

3.22: O Partha, in all three worlds, I have no assigned duty to perform. There is nothing I need to gain that I have not gained before (has not been gained), yet I am engaged in action.

The Trisu Lokesu (the three worlds) is the heaven, the earth, and the netherworlds. There are other classifications: Brahmaloka, Svarloka and Yama loka; World of Brahma, Indira, and Yama (death); Heaven, atmosphere and earth; Material world, Astral world, and Superconsciousness.

Read more in the table.

All these planetary systems are resident on the body of Lord Vishnu.

All lokas (worlds) except Goloka, Vaikuntha, and Brahmaloka are temporary places of residence. Therefore, Satyaloka down to patala, fourteen worlds in all, are subject to dissolution and creation, while the worlds above them are eternal and indestructible—Bhagavata Puranam, 11.24.21.

Goloka is full of touchstone palaces, wish trees, wish-yielding cows (Surabhi), servant-goddesses. Goloka is an effulgent circular ring of Light equal to a thousand moons. It is surrounded by Vaikuntha containing pure water. It resonates with playing of Ragas and chanting of Vedas. Siva himself admits that he knows of no place like Goloka.

Table:  AUM is a space-filler.

According to Bhagavata purana, 11.24.11, Bhurloka consists of the earth and the seven subterranean regions: Atāla, Vitāla, Sutāla, Talatāla, Rasatāla, Mahatāla, and Patāla. The Bhuvarloka is the region above the earth. The Svarloka consists of Maharloka, Janaloka, Taparloka, and Satyaloka.

3.23:  If I ever do not perform my duties with great care and attention, O Partha, all men would follow my path in all respects. 

3.24:  If I do not perform my karma, all these worlds will come to ruin. I will be the creator of death, disorder, and destruction of these people.

3.25:   As the ignorant act with attachment to their work, O Bharata, the learned should do their work without attachment, but with a desire to lead the people in the right path. 

Ramana Maharishi said, “Forsake me not my friend Detachment, and ever let me call you mine, for you destroy the densest darkness, the darkness of desires, kindling the flame of knowledge. And you my friend Detachment, ever you ward off evil from me, and keep me bound to enduring Truth. Such is your virtue. Estrangement from you would be worse than all the world's hostility.”  

3.26: A Vidvan (the learned and the enlightened man) should not cause any mental confusion in the ignoramus who performs action with attachment. He should perform his actions according to propriety (Vedic injunctions) and induce them to act (in similar manner).

The depth of awareness of an individual to Truth or Consciousness is as varied as the spiritual intuitive intelligence, upbringing, receptivity, religiosity, and environment. Pursuit of knowledge, and awareness there is something greater than we are, are inherent in all of us. They may be ignorant of the ways of a yogi. We should accept the limits of such people of simple faiths and not force our values on them; we should use their strengths to uplift them and at the same time not take advantage of their weaknesses, such as superstitions. Hindu religion has shown this resilience in allowing man to worship a pantheon of forces and gods: It could be as simple as nature worship; the object of worship could range from elements of nature to tutelary gods. As Vivekananda says, the worships ranging from the crude to the fine are not in error, but a journey from truth to truth, from lower truth to higher truth. It is relative as in, “Darkness is less light; evil is less good; impurity is less pure.” The Kali of a Yogi Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is different from the Kali of an uninitiated and the unrealized. Ramana Maharishi's experience of Shiva Consciousness is different from that of an ordinary devotee of Shiva. They come from two different worlds; nevertheless, the devotee's experience is important for that devotee; we, the ordinary devotees of God, are not the learned enlightened men but we are on our way towards that goal. India has shown the evolution of the human soul from that of a nature worshipper to one of absorption into the Brahman, Samādhi.

3.27:  All actions are subject to gunas (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) of material nature. He, in whom ahankara perplexes the mind, thinks, “I am the doer.”

Ahankāra: ego

Gunas: modes of behavior. In simple terms, Sattva is goodness; Rajas is passion; Tamas is darkness and sluggishness.

            Ahankāra:  Aham+Kāra = I+ making or causing. I am the doer. As said earlier there are three gunas (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas), which control our activities of material nature. The pristine life-soul overlaid by ahankāra (the ego, I-ness or I-factor, me, mine) and Vimūdha (confusion of mind), mistakenly thinks that it is the doer. Buddhi is like a barrier or filter between the gunas and the actions. What goes through is what shows in action, and buddhi discards the leftover gunas: If sattva goes through and the Rajas and Tamas stay back, the person is sattvic. Buddhi is the automatic modulator of every activity. One's actions and reactions are according to one's buddhi, which is the filter for ahankāra too. Yogi controls his ahankāra, meaning that he is not Rajasic or Tamasic and the I-factor is vestigial; once Tamas dissipates, the yogi steps out of darkness; with the removal of Rajas, the mental agitation calms down; stillness prevails. Since all the turbidities disappear, there is translucence; there is clarity; buddhi reveals the serene stillness of purusa free from the frenetic activities of prakriti and its gunas.

                 Ten Indriyas, manas and ahankāra: The ten Indriyas, engaged in perception and action (sensory and motor functions), and the sensory stimuli impinge the manas (mind). The mind processes the sensory stimuli and presents them to buddhi through the I-ness of ahankāra. Buddhi filters out this turbidity as said earlier. The soul's nature is not prakriti and gunas. The body-mind-ego complex (the sheath encasing the soul) causes confusion and the life-soul loses its anchor to the Self and feels that it is separate from Self. Once the soul (individual soul) loses its connection to the Soul (Greater Soul), it feels that it is independent and that it is the doer.

These three constituents of gunas are inseparable and form a complex, Sattva-Rajas-Tamas complex, which is inert if it is in equilibrium. Only one of the three constituents is dominant in a person or entity. Sattva is knowledge, intellect, light, and balanced emotion; Rajas is the motor behind Sattva and Tamas; without Rajas, Sattva and Tamas are inert. Dominance of Rajas naturally means revved-up emotions; Tamas is darkness, passivity, or negativity. These three gunas, strands, and complex condition the manifest world, both animate and inanimate. The force behind this complex or strands is purusa, which agitates these strands or gunas and causes disequilibrium with the resultant heterogeneity and polymorphism.

3.28:  The knower of the reality, O mighty-armed one (Mahā-bhāho) knows the difference between the gunas and their actions. He, knowing the gunas act on gunas, remains unattached to them.

There are five sensory organs for hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling. There are five motor organs for speech, prehension or grasping, ambulation or movement, excretion, and generation. Buddhi applies its filters to all actions and what emerges in the form of an action could be sattvic, Rajasic or Tamasic. We are what we think, speak, and do: These are inflows. Throughout our life, we store these inflows in our soul body, a leftover entity after the physical or gross body dies. This soul body or subtle body carries the individual soul, a record of past and present karma, pure consciousness, the vāsanās, and samskāra. Vāsanās, perfumes, are similar to perfume clinging to the clothes and in this case to the subtle body, and are karma-induced latent tendencies. (These vāsanās hitch a ride on the subtle body or soul body.) They decide to some extent the man's basic tendency and gunas. The meritorious and demeritorious karmic inflows cling to the subtle body and manifests in the physical body and life of an individual. Samskāra is prakriti, which transformed into an individual or a personality with the vāsanās; Samskāra means that a person carries the “impression on the mind of acts done in a former state of existence.” When the soul is ready to go home to the Lord or the Greater Self, the soul will cast off (extra load consisting of) the body sheaths, the Vāsanās, the karmas, and the samskāra: There is no more cycle of births and rebirths; it is home free at last. Samskāra is behavioral and mental imprint received from the past lives, similar to the genetic inheritance.

3.29:  The gunas of Prakriti fools men to attach themselves to the gunas and their actions. Those, who have perfect knowledge, should not rattle (disturb, agitate, confuse) the sluggish ones (manda) with inadequate knowledge.

Krishna gives a word of caution to the Kritsna-vit (the knower) not to confuse the “manda,” lazy, sluggish, half-baked and gormless person (without knowledge and reason). He is asking the knower not to give up on the ignorant and the sluggish, but to let them take their own time to come to the realization that the self is the real and the “not-self” is not. In this material world, the gunas play a savage role on the body-mind-ego-senses complex. The ignorant and sluggish ones wallow in the senses and sense objects, and think that his universe is one sense indulgence to the next. Two birds on a tree explain this point. One bird is enjoying all the fruits and the other bird (Paramatma) is the witness, watching the Epicurean bird in silence and taking notes. The jiva bird, once it finished eating the fruits on one tree, flies to the next tree: This is transmigration of jiva from one body to the next. From prakriti evolves Mahat or buddhi and from buddhi develops ahankāra, the I-ness. As said earlier, manda's buddhi is not enough to curb his ego, the I-ness, and the senses; and filter the Tamas and the Rajas out. Prakriti and its attendant gunas perform their dance in frenzy. When (the song and) the dance stops because of lack of interest from the onlooker (Witness, Self), pure Sattva emerges, the ignorance vanishes and the prakriti develops.

Purusa has acuity of vision and weak legs, and prakriti has a sure foot (and a strong back). They are complementary and the union of Purusa with Prakriti (the Original State ) compares to the lame man with good vision riding on the shoulders of a blind man. (More on Purusa and Prakriti later or elsewhere.)

3.30:  Dedicating or surrendering all your activities to me, with your consciousness fixed to or anchored in the Self, without desire, free from conceit (ego) and sorrow (fever), fight.

Nirmama: not caring for, indifferent to mundane matters, lack of self-conceit or vanity

Vigata: free from sorrow; from whom, fever has left. Jvarah: fever or sorrow.

A total self-surrender to Bhagavan by his devotee, who is free from desire or ego, who is full of patience and contentment, who has separated senses from sense objects, and who receives the knowledge of “Self,” helps the devotee gain moksa or liberation. Karma follows the individual soul from one life to the next. The body, wealth, property, and material belongings stay behind, when man dies. Staying attached to material belongings is like a fever and causes sorrow. “Wealth increases one's hankering like the sweet water of the Ganges .” Sāntiparva 177.26-8. It goes further and states that material possessions are like worthless straws for the one whose heart is pure by reflection: the light from “Self” in the spiritual heart. When Bhagavan urges Arjuna to fight his friends and relatives and other worthy men, the following passage in Sāntipura is relevant. As two wooden sticks, jostled in the ocean (of Samsāra or phenomenal world), meet each other for a fleeting moment, and separate after that, even so is the contact between two family members. One should not feel any particular and any undue passion towards them, for separation is a certainty. Joys and sorrows are like (spikes of) fever with its difficulties. One is wise to develop the homing device inherent in the self, which weakens from ignorance and karmic inflows. Ordinary people in this world can gain Bliss by doing karma and or bhakti yoga. They are within the reach and practicability of every human being, and their simplicity and profundities are worthy of note. Lord Krishna urges Arjuna to do what his birth-varna dictates and fight his enemies. This advice based on the Vedic rules towards family and friends is open for misinterpretation especially in the west.

3.31: Men, who follow the doctrine or teachings of Mine with sraddha (faith) and uncomplaining (anasūya), will become free from bondage of work ¾ karma.

Read commentary on karmic inflows into the soul in verse 33. Bad karma comes from “defaming the Omniscient, the scriptures, the brotherhood, and religion,” according to Jainism.

3.32: The ignoramus, who does not follow my teachings out of jealousy, is delusional and becomes ignorant of all knowledge of the Self, and will come to a ruin.

Abhyasūyā; Indignation, anger, jealousy.

3.33:  (Even) the Jnanavan (the man of knowledge) acts according to his nature. All beings behave according to their nature and modes (gunas). What can (Nigrahah) restraint or reprimand do?

Karma-laden soul

            Here, Bhagavan says that all men and beings are subject to prakriti and gunas or modes (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) inherited from the past deeds (Samskāra). These overwhelming gunas conditions the behavior of men. This karma must come to a zero-sum; one must erase all debts. What is the use of reprimands directed to these beings? Perfect karma is a zero-sum entity and prevents jivatma from transmigration, and guarantees absorption into the Absolute. It goes to show that all karmic acts have to reach a point of zero-sum status, so the soul escapes the cycles of birth and rebirth. As said earlier in chapter 2, jivatma transmigrates from body to body, until jiva resolves his karma; once that happens, it merges with Brahman. Action or yoga, based on mind, thought, speech, deed, and body, constitute the meritorious and demeritorious karmic inflows into the repository of the soul. Once the positive and negative inflows come to naught and mutual cancellation, the karma reaches a zero-sum end; the soul merges with Brahman; and Bliss becomes a reality and the crowning gain. Empty karmic bag with no residue guarantees liberation.

Meritorious karmic inflows guarantee a better life in the next birth; demeritorious inflows guarantee miserable life in the next birth; but if the sum total is zero, liberation to enjoy absolute bliss is the guaranteed outcome. This “Bliss” has no parallel in this earthly life. Liberation or Moksa constitutes several features: divestiture or stripping away of all kosas or sheaths (body or the not-self); the erasure of the threefold time element (past, present, and future); release from karma-induced transmigration, merits, and demerits; and the final step of becoming one with Brahman. The individual self that stays deep under the kosas or sheaths has to peel off all the layers from inside (here the self stands in its pristine nakedness) and merge with the Greater Self.

3.34:  Desire and dislike reside in senses and sense objects. Men should not come under their influence for these two are obstructionists (to self-realization).

Rāga and Dvesau: Desire and dislike, attachment and aversion. Vasam: dominion, control, influence, power. Paripanthinau: Antagonist, obstructionist, adversary, enemy, the one who blocks the way.

Attachment and aversion are the twin evils, which rob a person of his freedom and judgment. Buddhi should curb ahankāra, destroy the I-ness in us, and promote sattvic character: A sattvic has no likes or dislikes, or attachment or aversion.

3.35:  It is preferable to do one's own duty, however deficient it is, than to do the duty of another, however skillful it is. Better is death in performing one’s own duty than to perform the duty of another, for it is dangerous.

Sreyas: preferable. Sva + dharma: one’s own + duty. Viguna: deficient, lacking in merit. Para + dharma: other’s + duty. Bhayāvahah: dangerous.

All duties or jobs are of equal importance; that is the only way a family, a community, a society or a country can function in an ideal way; everybody follows his or her duty; all pull together or everyone falls. A ditch-digger is better off doing his job however imperfect it is, than to write a software program. A software programmer should not try digging a ditch. “Don't condescend to unskilled labor. Try it for a half a day first” ¾ Brooks Atkinson. “Everyman's task is his life-preserver.” Let me give you a humorous quote: “Wurruk is wurruk if you are paid to do it an' it's pleasure if ye pay to be allowed to do it.” It is not the nature of the work that matters, but the dedication, the enthusiasm and the spirit that go into the work. As for Arjuna, his inherent, God-given duty as a Ksatrya is to engage and destroy the enemy in battle: His duty is not that of a sannyāsi, a recluse or a muni.

3.36:  Arjuna said:

O Vārsneya, what impels a man to commit a sin against his free will, as if he is forced into it (someone forced him into it)?

Ni-yojita: impelled, urged. An-iccha: undesirous, unwilling, averse, against one’s free will or desire. Pra-yukta: urged, ordered, forced.

Arjuna wonders aloud about what impels a man to commit a sin. He thinks killing his friends, relatives, teachers and gurus in this battle as sin, and wonders about the force behind this pāpam (sin). He feels that an unseen force draws him to sin. Could this be the result of prakriti and its gunas?

3.37:   Sri Bhagavan said:

This is desire; this is anger, born of the mode of Rajas (passion), all devouring and greatly sinful. Know this as the enemy here (on earth).

Mahāsanah: gluttonous, all devouring

3.38: As the smoke envelops the fire, as the dust covers the mirror, as the womb covers the fetus, so passion obscures the wisdom.

3.39:  O Kaunteya, this eternal enemy in the form of desire, the all-consuming fire, obscures the wisdom of the knower.

Desire is an eternal enemy that obscures wisdom like the all-consuming fire.

For desire, there is no such limit as enough is enough; it is like fire; the more you feed it with fuel the more it grows, and the more it grows the more fuel it needs.

3.40:  The senses, the mind, and the buddhi (intelligence) are the seat of this desire. This covering of the Jnānam (wisdom) by desire deludes the embodied soul.

The senses, the mind, and the buddhi are the seat of desire. Wisdom obscured by desire confuses the embodied soul. The senses, the mind, and the buddhi are products of matter (prakriti), subject to manipulation. Jnāna is wisdom. It is to know that “self” is different from “non-self;” the knowledge of the self is that which we learn from scriptures and gurus; and it is “knowing” that god exists. 

Buddhi is Antah-Karana, the inner organ, which holds the determinant role (adhyasvasayatmika buddhi). External or mental action, senses, ahamkara (action drawing MY attention), (perception by) mind, and Buddhi colored by Sattva, Rajas and Tamas --white, red, and black form the basis for any action or reaction. Of all these entities, Buddhi is pervasive and thinking and is the seat of memory, and repository of Samskaras (impressions). Buddhi projects itself in Ahamkara, Manas (mind) and Indriyas (efferent pathways or instruments). Buddhi, Ahamkara, mind, and senses form the proper channel for actions, Buddhi being the determining element and answerable only to Purusa or Consciousness.  Buddhi, the charioteer; Manas, the reins; Senses, the horses; Jiva, the enjoyer; and Atma, the occupant of the chariot, forming one unit, can take you to liberation by virtuous deeds or to samsara, a cycle of births and rebirths, by karmic deeds. In man, Buddhi is Sattvic, Ahamkara is Rajasic and the Mind and Senses are Tamsic; in Yogi, Buddhi, Ahamkara, Manas and Indriyas are Sattvic, so they attain liberation easily. Buddhi can be Rajasic or Tamasic in warlike or ignorant people.

Adhyavasaaya = mental effort, apprehension. 

3.41:  Therefore O Bharatarsabha  (best of Bharatas), you should, at the beginning, subdue the senses, which destroy knowledge (Jnāna) and wisdom (Vijnānam).

Here Jnāna is mundane knowledge, and contains little spiritual wisdom; Vijnānam or wisdom has a specific reference to experiential knowledge of God. Jnāna is to know that God exists and Vijnāna is directly experiencing god. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa asked a rhetorical question in the presence of his devotees, “What is Vijnāna?” He answered that it is to know God in a special way. He added that knowing there is fire in the wood is Jnāna or knowledge, and cooking rice on that fire, eating, and getting nourishment from the cooked rice is Vijnāna. To know by inner experience that God exists is Jnāna, but to “talk to him, to enjoy Him as a Child, as a Friend, as a Master, as the Universe, and all living beings is Vijnāna.” (Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.)

Swami Vivekananda told a story on Jnāna. Once upon a time, a flock of sheep adopted a lion cub. The cub was eating grass; he was growing and bleating like a sheep. One day a lion on the prowl saw the lion cub grazing on grass and bleating like a sheep. The lion waited until the cub went to sleep. Gingerly, the lion woke up the cub and asked him about what he was doing with the sheep. He rebuked him saying that he was a lion cub. The sheep-lion said, “No I am not a lion. I am a sheep.” The visiting lion took the sheep-lion to the lake and asked him to see his face in the water. The sheep-lion could not believe his eyes and bleated out saying that he looked like the visiting lion. The visiting lion roared and asked the cub to roar like him. He tried and tried but could not roar. He bleated. After a few bleats, the sheep-lion roared. He is not a sheep anymore. He is a lion. He arrived at Jnāna. Jnāna is to know that you are the soul and not the body. Logic and reason is a preliminary tool for explanation of material knowledge, but an impediment and an imperfect instrument for insight into the spiritual knowledge.  

Swami Vivekanada

 Jnāna is to know that God exists by one's inner experience; Vijnāna is to communicate and interact with God as a slave, a servant, a child, a friend, a spouse, a devotee.

Radhakrishnan says: according to Gita, there is no purifier like Jnāna. This Jnāna is NOT DIALECTIC learning, which Upanishads dismissed as mere words in the famous dialogue in the Upanishads between Narada, the representative of encyclopedic learning, and Sanatkumara, the TRUE KNOWER OF SELF. Note:  Sanatkumara features in Brahmavaivarata Purana. He was a celestial sage. See Supplement ¾ ChitraRadha's Curse.

3.42:  (It is said that) the senses are great, greater than the senses is the mind, greater than the mind is the buddhi and greater than the buddhi is THAT.

That: Atma, Soul.

Here is a depiction of the evolutionary transformation of man from a sensual entity to a realized soul. If one looks at Kundalini yoga with a psychological perspective, the following is obvious. As the Kundalini power rises from the base of the spine to the crown, the man becomes more and more evolved and subtler until he reaches Sahasrara, a true yogic experience, Oneness with Brahman. There are seven levels* or planes; I give the anatomical locations of these levels or planes to prove a point. The planes are in an ascending order: Anal, Genital, Navel, Heart, Throat, Glabella, and Crown (Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Visuddha, Ajna and Sahararara. In psychological terms, man climbs from one plane to the next to become a yogi or settles down on a plane he is most comfortable with. The Anal man, the Genital man, the Emotional man, the Thinking man, the Sattvic man, the Intuitional man and the Yogi are the seven stages of man. The Intuitional man is not only sattvic but has intuitive intelligence. Intuitive intelligence is not mere knowledge received from books; not only he gains knowledge from the religious texts, teachers and gurus, but also he has the realized knowledge (not dialectical) of a near-yogi. He received Jnānam (knowledge or realization of Atman) and he is getting ready for Vijnānam: an experiential realization of God. The Anal man is infantile in his life style. He is plain alimentation and excretion. The Genital man is one step above the Anal man and is procreative and recreational in his pursuits. The Navel Man is one step higher and is an emotional man. The Rajas is dominant in his behavior. Jung says, "You are just bones and blood and muscles; you are in the intestines; you are functioning there like a worm with no head."  Jung described "Manipura as the center of corporeal men, carnivores... the world of mere emotions."

Talking about Heart man at Anahata Center, Jung says, "Yes, you begin to reason, to think, to reflect about things, and so it is the beginning of a sort of contraction or withdrawal from mere emotional function. ...Why I am behaving like this? (The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga, page 38-39.)

Mr. Allemann is quite correct in saying that Muladhara is the life of animals and primitives who live in complete harmony with nature. In consciousness we are in Ajna, and yet we actually live in Muladhara. That is Sthula aspect--IBID, Page 64.

The Throat man has given up the Rajasic behavior and has become sattvic. He is cerebral and intelligent, and his buddhi has the ability to filter out the Tamasic and the Rajasic gunas. He is beginning to see there is more to life than going to work, making a living, and raising a family. He realizes there is something greater than he is and begins to immerse himself in religious studies; he is on a path to find peace, freedom, and happiness from within. The Glabella man and the Crown man are the realized souls. The Glabella man (the spot between the eyebrows) goes in and out of samādhi and enjoys it. He is on his way to become one with Brahman, and enjoying samādhi is incidental but his primary aim is to become one with Brahman.

Glabella = Trikuuti = bone of the forehead or protuberance.

Seven levels*: In Kundalini Yoga, the Yogi ascends from Muladhara Chakra through Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Visuddhi, and Ajna Chakras to reach Sahasrara plane. The moral qualities (Vrtti) in lower two chakras are not desirable by any standards. Anahata Center shows a mix of lower and higher qualities, a transitional zone from animal to human dimension, as the jiva takes interest in higher principles. From Visuddhi to Sahasrara plane, man makes a transition from human to Yogi to absorption into Higher Consciousness. Further evolution of the soul takes the Yogi to higher circles (Mandalas). Go to Kundalini Power for more details.

3.43:  Thus knowing that He is beyond intelligence, and steadying the (lower) self by the (higher) Self, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he (the yogi) conquers this formidable enemy in the form of desire and strikes him.

Jahi: Strike, cuff.

Conquering the desires, steadying the lower self, and controlling the baser elements and the body-mind-ego-senses complex by the will of the higher Self, are important for to liberate the self. Jnāna is within his grasp and Vijnāna faculty is dawning on him. The self-effulgence of the higher Self is the guiding light for the self in its struggle to go home to its natural bliss state. How do we break Samsāra, the cycle of births and rebirths? How do we cross this ocean of samsāra? It is with the cittasuddhi (clean mind and heart) the cycle of samsāra comes to stop. What you think, is what you are: If the thought of man, that is “fixed within the realms of senses” is close to Brahman, release from bondage is a guarantee; if the man feeds on the desires of senses, the samsāra journey never ends. “I feel like a frog in a waterless well. You know the true nature of Self. You are our way of escape; Oh yes, you are our way of escape” ¾ Upanishad.

End of Third chapter, Karmayoga