Bhagavagd Gita - Session 18- Track 1806

So, the question now arises: ‘what is your real duty?’ It is in this context that Sri Krishna says that, “Your duty is a very limited idea; it is an infant’s idea that you are confined to a small field and therefore that is what you have to do: sarvakarmāṇi, there is no limit to it…all actions!”. You are actually called upon to do all actions: there is no such thing that ‘this is your duty’ and ‘that is not your duty’. One of the messages of Sri Krishna to Arjuna was: “Do not think in small terms of your duty; although from the point of view of your duty you should fight but that is not all; it is only one point of view. But you are actually called upon to do the action according to the Divine’s will, and the Divine’s will is always ‘lokasaṁgraha’: the totality of the people and the solidarity, which has no limit. Your action is total action: in which ever way you are turned to the universe, in which ever way the threads of your life are tied to the world, in all those fields is your action”. This is the first aspect of the teaching and relevance of the Gita’s teaching.

The second aspect is: is it possible to act, and not to be lost in mere movement of action? Normally, psychologically, when you are acting, you become confined to action to such an extent that you become bombed by action:karmabandhana. Now, if your field of action has expanded so much, your field of binding bondage also become expanded. And the modern man is therefore burdened with a tremendous sense of bondage. So, Sri Krishna’s teaching is that even when you do action, and yet you become free, is it possible? That is why, while you extend your field of action, which is necessary, this other knowledge, which Sri Krishna gives that you should be free from all action, even while doing action. That teaching is the most important message. And Sri Krishna’s teaching is basically that even while doing full action, you can be completely free, when you realise the law of sacrifice. And when you know the Lord is the doer, and when your will is joined with the Divine’s will, and when that action flows through you, that even when the action is done, and the full action is done, (and Divine’s action is always full action, ‘lokasaṁgraha’), so even the lokasaṁgraha action proceeds from you and through you, it only flows through you and you are free from all the burden: the Lord Himself is the doer. Now, ‘this’ is the real message of the Bhagavad Gita, and this is what has been explained in the 4th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.