Choose the Right Career Using Bhagavad Gita's Teachings on Work
There can be two sets of actions to choose from. One action could be the one that will load one with more bondages. Action that will lead to a thickening or deepening of your bondages. Another is kartavya i.e. action that leads to Freedom from your bondages. You can see the chains, so your action is for the sake of your Freedom, Liberation.
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Questioner: In verse 17, Shri Krishna says that there is no duty to perform for the one who rejoices only in the Self. Yet, when we look at the greats—like Mahavira, Buddha or Kabir Sahab—they took huge steps to dispel the darkness of man’s mind, as if they were performing an undeclared duty.
And, in verse 26, Shri Krishna again refers to the wise one and says that he should get others to perform all their duties, duly performing his own too. Is there any contradiction here? And, what makes a Buddha or a Mahavira do what they do?
Acharya Prashant: “The man who rejoices only in the Self and is satisfied with the Self, and is contended only in the Self—for him there is no duty to perform. The wise man established in the Self should not unsettle the mind of the ignorant one attached to action, but should get them to perform all their duties while duly performing his own duties.”
You see, Shri Krishna is presenting the entirety, the totality of the matter of action here. On one hand, He says that in the highest state of Liberation there is no duty, no kartavya left; no duty at all left. That is point one that you have to understand. At the same time he says, “Look at me Partha (Arjuna). Who can bind Me in duty? I have no duty at all! And yet, I keep doing everything.” He presents his own example. You have to look at everything together to get the complete picture.
