Saturday, September 10, 2011

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 - Karma Yoga - Sloka 27

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

How to root out the Ego - sloka 27-32
1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 3 -Karma Yoga - Sloka 27

Prakreteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah I
Ahankara vimudatma karta ham iti manyate II sloka 27
प्रक्रेतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः ।
अहङ्कार विमुदत्मा कर्ता हं इति मन्यते ।। श्लोक २७ 

The gunas of Prakriti perform all karma. With the understanding clouded by egoism, man thinks, "I am the doer".


Karma is inherent in nature which is constituted of the 3 gunas - sattva, rajas & tamas.  But there is no karma whatsoever in the atman. The ignorant man is incapable of distinguishing between the action-ridden atman and the actionless self. 


It is egoism to identify yourself with the non-self. Two trains stand side by side in a railway station. A passenger in one train fixes his gaze on the other. When the other train moves the man fancies that his own train is moving. Likewise the mobility of prakriti is imposed on the immobile atman. Egosim is brought about by mistaking Prakriti for atman. Bondage persists as long as egoism lasts. The egoistic man thinks of himself as the doer while he actually is not. Egosim and agency are the outcome of ignorance.



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