Gita Bhashya -Sankara 167

Shri Sankara's Gita Bhashya

(Sri Sankaracharya's Commentary on the Gita)

CHAPTER -4

And now, what does the expression 'mere bodily action'mean?-Is it action to be performed by the hody? or action needed for the maintenance of the body? If it be asked, what is the use of such an enquiry as to whether 'bodily action 'refers to action performed by the body or to action needed for the bare maintenance of the body, we reply: If action performable by the body had been meant by 'bodily action', then by saying that one does not incur evil by performing action, productive of seen and unseen results, through the bodyeven if such action be a prohibited one-we shall be imputing (to the Lord) the teaching of something improper. And to say that by doing action, productive of seen and unseen results, pre­ scribed by the Scripture one does not incur evil is to deny some­ thing which has not been propounded. And, because of the speci­ fication, "(by doing) bodily (action) "and the use of the word 'mere '('kevalam ') the implication would be that by performing action by speech or thought-whether it be one prescribed by scripture or one prohibited by scripture, respectively known as dharma and adharma-one incurs evil. In that case also, to say that by doing (by speech or thought) a prescribed act, one incurs evil would be in contradiction (of scripture); and to say that by doing a prohibited act (by speech or thought) one incurs evil is a mere reiteration of a (known) truth and therefore useless. If on the other hand 'bodily action 'is taken to mean' action needed for the bare maintenance of the body', then (the inter­ pretation of the passage is as follows-by body, speech and mind, doing no other action-whether prescribed or prohibited by Scripture, and productive of seen and unseen results-and by body, speech and mind, performing in the eye of the world merely those movements of the body etc.