The Bhagavad Gita · 1 of 2 · tr. Kashinath Trimbak Telang
Chapter III, Section 1a
CHAPTER III.
Ar g una said: If, O Ganârdana!
devotion is deemed by you to be superior to action, then why, O Kesava!
do you prompt me to (this) fearful action?
You seem, indeed, to confuse my mind by equivocal words.
Therefore, declare one thing determinately, by which I may attain the highest good.
The Deity said: O sinless one!
I have already declared, that in this world there is a twofold path --that of the Sâ n khyas by devotion in the shape of (true) knowledge; and that of the Yogins by devotion in the shape of action.
A man does not attain freedom from action merely by not engaging in action; nor does he attain perfection by mere renunciation.
For nobody ever remains even for an instant without performing some action; since the qualities of nature constrain everybody, not having free-will (in the matter), to some action .
The deluded man who, restraining the organs of action , continues to think in his mind about objects of sense, is called a hypocrite.
But he, O Ar g una!
who restraining his senses by his mind .
and being free from attachments, engages in devotion (in the shape) of action, with the organs of action, is far superior.
Do you perform prescribed action, for action is better than inaction, and the support of your body, too, cannot be accomplished with inaction.
This world is fettered by all action other than action for the purpose of the sacrifice .
Therefore, O son of Kuntî!
do you, casting off attachment, perform action for that purpose.
The Creator, having in olden times created men together with the sacrifice, said: 'Propagate with this.
May it be the giver to you of the things you desire.
Please the gods with this, and may those gods please you.
Pleasing each other, you will attain the highest good.
For pleased with the sacrifices, the gods will give you the enjoyments you desire.
And he who enjoys himself without giving them what they have given, is, indeed, a thief.' The good, who eat the leavings of a sacrifice, are released from all sins.
But the unrighteous ones, who prepare food for themselves only, incur sin .
[paragraph continues] From food are born (all) creatures; from rain is the production of food; rain is produced by sacrifices; sacrifices are the result of action; know that action has its source in the Vedas; the Vedas come from the Indestructible.
Therefore the all-comprehending Vedas are always concerned with sacrifices .
He who in this world does not turn round the wheel revolving thus, is of sinful life, indulging his senses, and, O son of P ri thâ!
he lives in vain.
But the man who is attached to his self only, who is contented in his self, and is pleased with his self , has nothing to do.
He has no interest at all in what is done, and none whatever in what is not done, in this world ; nor is any interest of his dependent on any being.
Therefore always perform action, which must be performed, without attachment.
For a man, performing action without attachment, attains the Supreme.
By action alone, did G anaka and the rest work for perfection .
And having regard also to the keeping of people (to their duties) you should perform action.
Whatever a great man does, that other men also do.
And people follow whatever he receives as authority.
There is nothing, O son of P ri thâ!
for me to do in (all) the three worlds, nothing to acquire which has not been acquired.
Still I do engage in action.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage outlines a narrative of cosmic origin where the Creator established men and sacrifice together, linking food, rain, and action in a generative chain.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The central instruction is to perform prescribed actions while casting off attachment, emphasizing that freedom comes from acting without desire for the fruits of action.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text describes a divinely ordered cycle where the Creator established sacrifice to ensure mutual benefit between humans and gods, implying an active ordering of cosmic affairs.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.
The text states that 'nobody ever remains even for an instant without performing some action' because the qualities of nature constrain everyone, suggesting a deterministic or mechanical aspect to human behavior driven by innate forces.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The text presents the paradoxical teaching that one attains freedom not by ceasing action but by acting without attachment, and that the Supreme Being acts despite having nothing to gain.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The text contrasts the deluded man with one who is 'contented in his self' and 'pleased with his self,' indicating that liberation arises from recognizing one's true nature beyond external objects.