THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 4, JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE, VERSE NUMBER 17

 THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER 4

JNANA KARMA SANYASA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION IN KNOWLEDGE OR THE WAY OF KNOWLEDGE:

VERSE NUMBER 17

Text in Transliteration:

karmano hy api boddhavyam

   boddhavyam cha vikarmanah

akarmanas cha boddhavyam

   gahanaa karmano gatih

Text in English

It is needful to discriminate action, to discriminate forbidden action, and to discriminate inaction; inscrutable is the way of karma.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

What the scriptures advocate as auspicious work is here designated as action; and what they prohibit as harmful and inauspicious work is described as forbidden action. But the forbidden action is not dealt with here. It is elaborately explained in chapters 16 and 17.

Comments by the blogger:

The Lord says that the way of karma is inscrutable. Only auspicious karma or work as designated so in the Scriptures can be taken as action. Other actions whose product is evil is forbidden by the Scriptures. All the auspiciousness is derived from the Lord indeed. God is full of all auspicious qualities. But He instills these auspicious qualities in the prakriti or nature. One should be able to understand what is meant by action.  Because such auspicious qualities alone are discriminated as action! Other actions which are forbidden are not designated as action. The Man should be able to understand karma or action. It is inscrutable because the source of karma or action is desire and desire in turn crops up from illusion. So all actions are not recommended as actions and the forbidden actions are not actions at all. So human beings are recommended to not indulge in forbidden actions. This is for our good and ennoblement. But there is yet another category of karma which is designated by the Lord as inaction. So without the help of the Scriptures we cannot discriminate between action, forbidden action which are listed in chapters 16 and 17 as per Swami Sidbhavananda’s commentary, and inaction.

The Hinduism alone has gone so deep in such philosophical questions. All the relevant questions have been asked by the Vedic and the Upanishadic Sages and Saints and full answers for them have been found by them. They have, out of infinite compassion for the succeeding generations of the world as a whole. For this various sastras or Scriptures have been written by them. The Hindus cannot say they belong to them alone. They are for the whole world and for all ages. They never become old or antiquated. Gita is a fine summation of such Sastras or Scriptures. By reading Gita regularly a human being can be said to have a thorough knowledge of all the Hindu Scriptures.