The Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 3 - "The Yoga Of Action" translated by The Krippled Khemist

Arjuna:



"If what you say is true, that accordance with the emptiness known as the tao is superior to action, why then do you ask me to perform such an act of bloodshed by waging war against my loved ones?

You've confused me... Please answer me. Tell me that one way in which I can achieve a perfect outcome from which no suffering arises."



Krishna:



"Arjuna, as I've said, their exists two paths; the path of accordance with the tao and the path of taking action.

However, choosing not to act is an action of its own. Because of this, through not waging war, you are not achieving a more perfect outcome than you would if you had decided to wage war.

Thus, it is impossible for one to not take action. Due to the nature of our limited contriving selves we have no choice but to act helplessly.

One who restrains his body from action to sit and use his conventional knowledge to find a better solution must have a misunderstanding to think that this abstinence has escaped him from taking action.



However once one tames the mind and frees it of its preconceived concepts, they have escaped duality and are now in accordance with emptiness and in accordance with the tao. This is perfection.

Act in accordance with the tao; this is the natural way; this is acting in non-action. Acting in non-action is the total opposite of not acting. To not act is detrimental; even our very existence relys upon the actions of our physical body.

Nature is bound by natural actions, natural actions that take place because that is the way it is. Take action Arjuna! Act in accord with emptiness, do what's natural.

Because of the tao, human beings were born together with nature, part of nature. Nature is the everlasting, all-powerful essence of which we are, from which we came and shall return.

In performing this non-contrived action, nature and human beings benefit mutually. Arjuna, this is the perfect outcome from which no suffering arises.



Nature nourished by empty action will provide one with all they will ever need. Yet, if one fails to act in non-action, they will succumb to suffering.

Those who act in action which is empty of attachments find enlightenment, but those who selfishly act in a contriving manner will dwell in perpetual suffering.

All is sustained by the actions of nature, and the actions of nature are sustained by all.

Be aware that empty action is the natural way, and the natural way is the tao. Thus, the natural way is always empty.



One who acts according to their desires has met the 10,000 things and will find suffering.

One who acts according to the tao has met emptiness, or the 0, and will find that they have nothing to do.

This is why empty action is called non-action. This is why the sage leaves nothing done or undone as all is as part of him.

Therefore, empty of attachments one performs what is to be performed and unifies theirself with the real.



King Janaka and others have found accordance with the tao and you should too. Guide all the others to a state of universal enlightenment.

For one who finds accordance with the tao, all shall follow.

Arjuna, there is nothing in the three worlds that should be done by Me, and nothing that I need, yet i engage Myself in action for the sake of all.

If I were to not act, all would follow

and the world would be ruined. I would be the cause of destruction in my people.



As ignorant men act out of attachment, wise men must act empty of attachment.

And the wise shall unsettle the minds of the ignorant and engage them through love.



All actions are caused by natures duality and natures duality alone, One who is deluded by the ego thinks "I am the doer", however there is no doer it is just done.

But once the wise one is aware of the emptiness in duality and all perceived things, he or she is not attached.

Those who give name and form to what is are attached. The wise should not anger the foolish with this ultimate knowledge.

Free from egoism you must act and perform your natural duty to fight this war.



Those who are not aware of the tao, yet follow my actions, they too are freed from action.

But those who dismiss my insight and for the sake of conforming become engaged in what their minds have titled desirable, and will be doomed to destruction.



When the wise one transcends duality he can easily control nature as he is nature and nature alone.

Concepts and conventions dwell in the mind and are illusions to what is real.

What's natural always reigns superior over the unnatural.



But what impels us to turn our backs to the natural?

The answer is desire, desire born from our experience of material objects; the insatiable destroyer of the natural.

As fire is concealed by smoke, as a mirror covered by dust, as the embryo is surrounded by the womb, so too is nature concealed in this desire.

Emptiness is covered by its constant opposite the 10,000 things.



The senses, mind and intellect are said to be the seat of the 10,000 things from which our selves are deluded.

Therefore, Arjuna, the first step is to seize control of the senses and destroy the 10,000 things we desire.

It is said that the senses are superior to the body, the mind superior to the senses, the intellect superior to the mind, and the consciousness superior to the intellect.

Thus consciously, seize the mind and slay the senses, the mother of all desire."