Chapter 2, Verse 38
sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā
lābhālābhau jayājayau
tato yuddhāya yujyasva
nainaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi
Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to your soul and then turn to battle; this way you shall not incur sin.
Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “Awake, My dear! Realise, that all this is just a drama put on by Me.” Later on, He will say, “I am the One who does everything, not you.” Here He is just telling Arjuna to awaken, “See it from the point of view of your soul. Don’t see only what your mind perceives.” The Lord again tells him, “Fight Arjuna! ‘Turn to battle; this way you shall not incur sin.’ Treating pleasure and pain alike, O Arjuna, get ready and do your dharma!” He says, “Don’t bother about whether you want to gain the kingdom of Heaven. You don’t desire the kingdom, so you want to run away from the kingdom. So if you don’t desire all these things, if you don’t want the kingdom, then it is easy for you, no? Just fight! And, cultivate the feeling of equanimity. You shall engage in this fight. I’m not telling you to fight to gain something. I’m not promising you anything, but just fight! Don’t think about how you fight. You already know you don’t desire anything. That’s good! That’s the first thing. Very good! Just please, fight! Lift up your weapon and fight. That’s the only thing I am asking you. If you just do what I tell you, it will bring everlasting and supreme peace.”
Here, Krishna is saying, “My dear, I am the Guru and you are the disciple. Your duty is just to listen. As the Guru, I am ordering you to fight, so don’t even think about it. You have already decided that you don’t want anything. In your mind, you have thought about it and you know you don’t want anything. This is good! Then just do what I am guiding you to do. I am showing you the path to supreme peace.” Bhagavan Sri Krishna continues, “If you fight, if you fight in this spirit, no guilt from committing any sin will arise in you.” This is Krishna’s reply to Arjuna’s question in the first chapter. He says, “There will be no sin involved if you do your dharma. If you participate in the battle, treating pleasure and pain, ‘victory and defeat equal’, with this attitude, you will not be bound to the results of the battle. No karma will be created. You will not be responsible. There will be no slight trace of karma arising when you do your dharma. You will be completely released from the bondage of action.” Karma arises due to expectation; when one expects in whatever one does, one creates karma. Karma binds and makes one suffer. But if one does one’s duty, if one does anything in the spirit of serving the Lord, one doesn’t create any karma.
Bhagavad Gita
