Work In Devotion

In the Second Chapter preliminary knowledge of the soul and its entanglement in the body were explained; how to get out of this entanglement by the method of buddhi-yoga was also explained therein. In the Third Chapter it was explained that a person who is on the platform of knowledge no longer has any duty to perform; and in the Fourth Chapter the Lord told Arjuna that all kinds of sacrificial work culminate in knowledge. However, at the end of the Fourth Chapter the Lord advised Arjuna to wake up and fight, being situated in perfect knowledge. Therefore by simultaneously stressing the importance of work in devotion and inaction through knowledge, Krsna has perplexed Arjuna and confused his determination. Arjuna understands that renunciation in knowledge involves cessation of all kinds of work involving sense gratificatory activities, but if one performs work in devotional service, how is work stopped? In other words, Arjuna has not quite understood that work in knowledge is as good as renunciation or inactive knowledge, that work in devotional service, because it is nonreactive, is transcendentally the same in result as inaction in knowledge. So Krsna will more elaborately explain that these two are actually one.

In the second verse Krsna says: "The renunciation of work and work in devotion are both good for liberation. But, of the two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of work." Fruitive activities are the cause of material bondage, and action performed for Krsna is the cause of liberation. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam this is confirmed as follows: "People are mad after sense gratification, and they do not know that this present body, which is full of miseries, is a result of one's fruitive activities in the past. Although this body is temporary, it is always giving one trouble in many ways, and therefore to act for sense gratification is not good. One is considered to be a failure in life as long as he makes no inquiry about the nature of fruitive results, for as long as one is engrossed in the consciousness of sense gratification, one has to transmigrate from one body to another. Although the mind may be engrossed in fruitive activities and influenced by ignorance, one must develop a love for devotional service to Vasudeva. Only then can one have the opportunity to get out of the bondage of material existence." (Bhag., 5.5.4-6)