Gyaneshwari -Sant Gyaneshwar
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Chapter-3
Karmayoga
5. Nor even for a moment can anyone remain without doing work; for everyone is driven helplessly to action by the qualities born of nature. So long as your body is the seat of prakriti, it is no use saying that you will perform this action or abandon that action; if you say so, it is due to ignorance. For the functions of the body naturally depend upon the qualities. Tell me, if a person abandons all his prescribed duties, will his sense organs cease to function? Will his ears stop hearing or his eyes lose their sight or will his nostrils become blocked and cease to smell (51-55)? Will his breathing come to a stop or will his mind be free from doubt? Will he cease to be affected by hunger and thirst? Will he give up waking or sleep and will his legs forget to walk? Even if all this comes to pass, can he avoid birth and death? If all this does not cease, what is it that he has given up? Hence a person who is subject to his nature cannot give up actions. Action is dependent upon something else (prakriti) and arises from its qualities; and so it is futile to think that you will undertake or abandon action at all. Mind you, even if a person sits without movement in a carriage, he must move with it, being dependent upon it (56-60). Just as a dry leaf, when caught in the wind, remains whirling in the sky, even if it has no motion of its own, so an inactive person continues to remain active under the influence of nature and the modifications of his senses. Therefore, so long as he is attached to his nature, he cannot give up actions. If anyone says that he will give them up it is merely due to his willfulness. |
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