Bhagvad Geeta for Children 7

Chapter 3 (contd): Karma Yog

To re-cap: In the second chapter, Bhagwan talked about Gyan (knowledge), not just what I know, but also what I understand. He says “I am not just this body. I am the atman.” The body is alive because of the Atman. For example, if someone asks you what is Math? There are many ways of explaining what Math is, but in simple terms, Math teaches us how to calculate.  That is the essence of Mathematics. If we cannot calculate, there is no mathematics. In the same way, the Atman is the essence of the body, without it, the body will not exist.

In the third chapter, Bhagwan talks about Karma, which is action. There are three concepts in any Karma: the first is action, which is Karma itself. The second is Katra: the doer who does the action, and the third is Karmaphal, the result of the action. We get entangled in these three. We look at the karmaphal, the result of the action. Arjun had the same problem, he was attached to and thinking about the karmaphal, about what the result will be if he fought with his family members. We all have this problem; we are entangled in the fruit of the action. This is because of Moh, which means attachment. Moh causes us to get attached to the Karmaphal. We get anxious because we focus on the results. Bhagwan tells us that the result will always be there, so don’t get distracted and think about other things, focus on the Karma, the action.

Shloke 27:

prakṛiteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśhaḥ
ahankāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate

In fact, all actions are being performed by the modes of Prakriti (Primordial Nature). The fool, whose mind is deluded by egoism, thinks “I am the doer.”

What makes us do Karma or action? Prakriti (our nature) makes us do Karma. There are three things in our nature: buddhi (intellectual faculty), instinct (just the action), dullness or inertia (laziness). In order to use our nature, we use our buddhi, our instinct along with buddhi, and inertia (laziness). These three qualities drive us to do karma.

Everything happens on its own, but when I say I am the doer, this is my result, that is my Ahankar, my ego. The more I say I am the doer, I get the result, that becomes a problem. The problem with ahankar is that your ego separates you from your atma, your divine nature. Basically, we are all good, but our ego separates us from our divine atma.

A student asked his teacher, “how do I understand that ego will be a problem in my life?” The teacher took him to a swimming pool and asked the student to jump in the water. Since he was a good swimmer, the student jumped into the water without any hesitation. The teacher then tied a 50-pound weight to the student’s back asked him to jump in the water again. The student was unable to swim, in spite of being a good swimmer. He started drowning with the heavy weight on his back. He asked the teacher to save him, otherwise he would drown.

That heavy weight is Ahankar. When we have Ahankar, it drags us down. It makes us frustrated, depressed; we fight for small things. All people, even babies have ahankar. If you take a toy from a baby, the baby will get frustrated and cry. The baby’s ahankar is small, but as he grows, the ahankar grows with him. When we are big, we have a big ego. Ahankar is like a seed, which is small in the beginning, but when we feed it, it becomes big, it can grow into a big tree. Ahankar is the cause of all the disagreements in our lives and in society.

Shloke 35:

śhreyān swa-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣhṭhitāt
swa-dharme nidhanaṁ śhreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ

One’s own duty, though devoid of merit, is preferable to the duty of another well performed. Even in death the performance of one’s duty brings blessedness; another’s duty is fraught with fear.

Arjun is a Kshatriya, a prince, so his duty is to fight, so he can protect his people. Just like a soldier protects the country, so all can live in peace.

Everyone has their own karma, which is according to their intrinsic nature. We must perform our own karma which is in keeping with our nature. That is more important than looking at someone else’s karma. People may say you are doing the wrong thing, but if you know that it is right, you should be confident enough to do it. What is the right action for you may not be the right action for another person. You should look at your own actions. Blindly doing what someone tells you to do may result in your downfall.