Gita for Youth - Moksha Yoga (Yoga of Emancipation) - Achieving Perfection

Achieving Perfection by working according to one's own nature

Such persons engaged in pursuing these activities which come naturally to them can achieve perfection. The Lord said, “I shall tell you now as to how one who is engaged in one’s own work can gain perfection.”

This is a wonderful teaching of Gita, that even people engaged in their own fields of work can achieve perfection. They neither have to renounce their home, work and family and go and take refuge in a forest in order to realize God, nor do they have to be master of their passions and be a Yogi. They simply need to carry out their own work which comes most naturally to them according to their predisposition (by birth or by the sanskaras accumulated in the past lives), in a way that is to be divulged. There is no caste distinction in achieving perfection. Any one belonging to any caste can achieve perfection as long as he/she is performing it in a certain manner or spirit.

Sri Krishna now reveals that special knowledge. “From whom all creatures and their tendencies have come into being and who is pervaded everywhere, by worshipping that Supreme Being though one’s own work one is able to achieve perfection.”

Work thus has to be heightened to a form of worship. One’s own tendencies, good or bad, can be utilized for the worship of the Supreme Being who is in all work, who is all work and who also represents the inclination for all work.

Any scholarly mind may ask, can then a murderer or a terrorist achieve perfection by claiming that the murder is dedicated to the Supreme Being, as Thagis or some bandits used to do in India in the past? The answer is a resounding No. Such a disposition is absolutely contrary to what Gita teaches. One can only worship the Supreme Being if one worships every being, because God is there in every being and every being is in God. Terrorists and murderers cannot dedicate their actions unto God because they are always afraid of getting caught or killed themselves. A true dedication is a complete surrender, one will not worry over the consequences, something which is never possible in an evil work. On the other hand a warrior can still fight a battle dispassionately if he does not care whether he will be killed or his enemy, set aside all his concerns and dedicate the fruits to the God, which Sri Krishna is asking Arjuna to do. If a terrorist really and truly does that, he will not remain a terrorist for long. By dedicating fruits one becomes purer and purer until one realizes the Supreme Truth of fundamental unity. Moreover work here is according to one's prescribed duty, as per Varnashrama rules and injunctions of the scriptures. None of the scriptures advocate murder.

One’s own natural habit sans any merit is better than going against one’s own nature forcefully. Even if one is sincere in the adopted duties which are against his very nature, one is bound to end up poorer because nature will extract its own pound of flesh. Unless one has conquered nature one will have to give way to her. If one performs actions according to one’s own nature, with utmost sincerity and devotion, by surrendering the fruits, one does not beget any sin.

This was discussed in Chapter 3 and has been reiterated by the Lord here. Going against one’s natural tendencies – culture, habit, tastes and preferences, beliefs, values, has disastrous consequences. That is why incarnations or the great sages never go against established norms but try to build on them, giving them a constructive direction. In this world where imitation of the cultures and habits of other nations, esp. the one who are more powerful and who forcefully thrust upon them on their hapless victims, this teaching becomes extremely relevant. It is obviously relevant in the context of Arjuna who, despite being a Kshatriya was going against his natural inclination by declaring his intention of renouncing action in the battlefield. This natural disposition is also the basis of the caste divisions.

The work which comes naturally should not be relinquished even if there are some faults associated with it, because some faults are embedded in almost all endeavors, just as fire is hidden in smoke.

Every work results in some good and bad. Even during respiration we kill microbes which we cannot see with the naked eye. Since the natural resources in the world are limited, if we share something in the form of charity with somebody, we incur the sin of depriving others of the same. None of the actions are free of blame. This is very evident if we study carefully Mahabharata where even Krishna's actions are questioned.