Chapter 3, Verse 30
mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi
sanyasyādhyātma-cetasā
nirāśīr-nir-mamo bhūtvā
yudhyasva vigata-jvaraḥ
Dedicating all your actions to Me with a mind centred in the Self, free from desire and selfishness, free from hotheadedness, do you engage in battle.
Krishna says, “Fight! Arjuna, fight!” He doesn’t stop reminding him, “You have to fight! Otherwise you’ll be crushed.” Life is like that! If you don’t make an effort, if you don’t go into your power, if you don’t fight all this negativity inside and outside of you, you will never move forward in life. He says, “Perform all your actions! Dedicate them to Me with a mind centred in the Self, free from desire and selfishness.”
The Self is free from desire: it is the mind which has lots of desires and selfishness. But the Self doesn’t have these qualities. The Self is free. Here, Krishna is showing that He is the Self of the Self.“Dedicating all your actions to Me with a mind centred in the Self”; the mind is centred in the Self, the mind is under the control of the Atma, the Self. Like that, you are free. Even if you do it in a state of mind filled with turmoil and disturbance, He says, “Don’t worry! Surrender this mind to Me. With a clear mind, with sincerity, close your eyes and say, ‘Krishna Arpanam, I offer this to you, my Lord.’
Even if you are weak; even if you have not yet achieved that state where the mind is completely focused on the Divine; even if you have not reached that state where there is complete dedication, you don’t need to worry, My dear, there is one way!” Even if you are doing your duty outside and you don’t think about Him, there is one way. Krishna says, “Surrender all these actions to Me. Remember why you are doing the action. You are doing the action for God-Realisation! Whatever you have done during the day, close your eyes and put it at My Feet! Offer it on My altar! And with such an offering, I will make you free!” So engage yourself, keep trying! Don’t let yourself down! If you have not succeeded in doing this today, do it tomorrow. Keep doing it every day! By constantly doing, it becomes your strength! That is your power!
When a child falls down, does it stop getting up? No! The child will get up and walk again; it will try to walk again and will fall again. When you learn to ride a bicycle, you fall down, but you get up and go back on the bicycle and do it again. You don’t just sit and cry about your failure. You get up!
Krishna says, “Rise, My dear! I have given you the knowledge of the Self. Even if you have not yet achieved that state, it doesn’t matter, just offer all the good punya to Me, I will look after you! I will carry you!” But you have to put your hand into the hand of the Lord for Him to carry you. He will not force you. He is asking you: offer your hand into the hand of the Guru! Let the Guru guide you.
The Lord says to Arjuna, “Transform all your responsibility for your actions. Even if you go and kill in this battle, offer it to Me!” Before Bhishma was dying, he was very proud of himself. In his pride, he was thinking that he was doing right, until Krishna reminded him that he was actually doing wrong. Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “If you can’t do it, it doesn’t matter; but transfer the responsibility of all your actions to Me! You should remove all the terrible feelings you have of hatred and grief; you should remove all the joy, love, and possessions; but you should carry on doing your duties. Offer them to Me! I will transform them.”
Bhagavad Gita
