Cluster 0116 — BG-3.19
BG-3.19
Sanskrit śloka
तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर । असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः ॥१९॥
Literal English: "Therefore, without attachment, perform constantly the action that ought to be done; for the person performing action without attachment attains the Supreme."
Note on तस्मात्: the therefore lands the entire chapter's argumentative weight. BG-3.4 through 3.18 has been a sustained refutation of the karma-sannyāsa option and a positive case for asakta-karma; BG-3.19 is where the case lands as a direct second-person imperative — समाचर (perform!). This is THE canonical-anchor niṣkāma-karma verse of the Gītā in imperative-mood.
Ovi 3.150
Original (Marathi): म्हणौनि तूं नियतु । सकळ कामरहितु । होऊनियां उचितु । स्वधर्में रहाटें ॥१५०॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| म्हणौनि | "therefore" — direct Marathi rendering of Sanskrit तस्मात् |
| तूं | "you" — second-person singular (Arjuna addressed) |
| नियतु | "disciplined / fixed / steady" — Marathi adjective from Sanskrit नियत (cf. BG-3.7 नियतं कुरु कर्म) |
| सकळ | "entirely / wholly" |
| कामरहितु | "desire-less" — कामwithoutलessness; the असक्त of Sanskrit |
| होऊनियां | "having become" — gerundive |
| उचितु | "as is proper / fitting" |
| स्वधर्में | "in your svadharma" |
| रहाटें | "engage / move about / conduct yourself" — imperative |
Literal translation
English: "Therefore — you, becoming disciplined and entirely free of desire, conduct yourself fittingly in your svadharma."
मराठी (आधुनिक): "म्हणून तू नियमित, संपूर्णतः कामनारहित होऊन योग्य रीतीने स्वधर्मानुसार वागत राहा."
Sanskrit-root note: The Marathi triad नियतु — कामरहितु — स्वधर्में compactly renders the Sanskrit triad सततं (constantly = नियतु) + असक्तः (desire-less = कामरहितु) + कार्यं कर्म (the action-that-ought = स्वधर्म). Three words pivot the entire imperative — Jñāneśvar's translation is structurally exact.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: 2.264 (parallel-image — first niṣkāma-karma imperative under BG-2.47); 3.78 (developed-further — svadharma-imperative now coupled with kāma-rahita-condition); 3.81 (parallel-image — svadharma=nitya-yajña seam-statement).
- Tukaram parallel: abhang 64 (
कर्मफळ म्हणुनी इच्छूं नये काम— same imperative in bhajan-Marathi); abhang 1432 (svadharma + niṣkāma-trust coupling). - Source citation: BG-2.47 (echo — original niṣkāma-karma imperative); BG-3.7 (echo — नियतं कुरु कर्म, source of नियतु); Iśa Upaniṣad 2 (echo — कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि, Upaniṣadic root).
Modern application
- When you find yourself trying to quit your job to pursue your true calling as an escape from current responsibilities — the ovi insists
सकळ कामरहितु होऊनियांdoes NOT mean stop acting; it means keep acting in your present duty, with the inner condition changed. Stay in the role; remove the fruit-craving. - When you have written a quarterly report and find yourself rehearsing how the praise will sound from your manager before you have even submitted it —
नियतुis the discipline to submit it and immediately move to the next task without holding the mental tab of expected praise open. - When a parent has been awake until 2 a.m. with a sick child and finds the inner voice asking will they remember this when I am old — that future-recognition-craving is exactly the कामना the ovi names. Caring for the child IS the svadharma; the craving-for-future-credit is the deformation.
Sādhanā
Today: pick one task on your list you have been putting off because it feels thankless or invisible. Do it in the next 90 minutes. While doing it, when the I-deserve-credit-for-this thought arises, notice it ONCE, do not argue with it, and continue the task. That noticing-without-argument is the kāmarahitu condition operationalized.
Arc
3.150 lands the imperative (रहाटें — conduct yourself!); 3.151 immediately reveals what awaits those who do — the kaivalya-state attained while still in the world.
Ovi 3.151
Original (Marathi): जे स्वधर्में निष्कामता । अनुसरले पार्था । ते कैवल्यपद तत्त्वतां । पातले जगीं ॥१५१॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| जे | "those who" — relative |
| स्वधर्में | "in svadharma / by way of svadharma" |
| निष्कामता | "the state of desirelessness" — abstract noun from निष्काम |
| अनुसरले | "followed / pursued / kept-to" — past participle |
| पार्था | "O Pārtha (Arjuna)" — vocative, anchors voice to Kṛṣṇa |
| ते | "they" |
| कैवल्यपद | "the state of kaivalya / aloneness / absolute liberation" |
| तत्त्वतां | "in truth / essentially" — adverbial from तत्त्व |
| पातले | "have attained / arrived at" |
| जगीं | "in the world" — locative; here, in this very world |
Literal translation
English: "Those who have followed niṣkāmatā by way of svadharma, O Pārtha — they have, in truth, attained the kaivalya-state right here in the world."
मराठी (आधुनिक): "हे पार्था, ज्यांनी स्वधर्माच्या मार्गाने निष्कामता आचरली, ते खरोखरच या जगातच कैवल्यपद प्राप्त झाले."
Sanskrit-root note: परमाप्नोति पूरुषः → रendering split — परम becomes कैवल्यपद (Vedānta technical term), आप्नोति becomes पातले, पूरुषः (the agent) becomes ते जे ... अनुसरले. The crucial Marathi addition is जगीं (in-the-world) — Jñāneśvar interprets BG-3.19's परम not as a posthumous attainment but as जीवन्मुक्ति in this lifetime. This interpretive move is load-bearing for adhyāya 3's lived-householder reading and prepares BG-3.20's Janaka-exemplar.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. (कैवल्यपद here is the Vedānta-Sānkhya technical term for absolute aloneness/liberation, not a Nātha-yogic kuṇḍalinī attainment-state.)
Cross-references
- Internal: 3.80 (parallel-image —
निश्चित पावेis the categorical soteriological-guarantee in positive imperative-mode); 3.83 (parallel-image —बंधन कहींच न घडे, the negative form of the same apex-claim). - Tukaram parallel: abhang 1432 (same svadharma-niṣkāmatā→mokṣa coupling in householder-bhakti vocabulary); abhang 2922 (thematic-resonance — destination-state Tukaram names becoming-Nārāyaṇa; same destination, different framing).
- Source citation: BG-3.19 (direct-quote — परमाप्नोति पूरुषः rendered as कैवल्यपद ... पातले); BG-2.51 (echo — पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम्, same destination-place vocabulary); BG-5.12 (echo — शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम्, structurally identical fruit-renunciation→stable-attainment claim).
Modern application
- When you have been doing the early-morning school-run for your child for six years and the question creeps in — what am I attaining, where is the spiritual progress — this ovi answers: if you have been doing it as kāmarahitu svadharma, you have already attained kaivalya
जगीं— the world IS the location of attainment, not a barrier to it. - When a colleague chasing a transcendent-spiritual-path tells you their meditation retreat will produce realization, and you find yourself feeling that your householder-life is second-best — the ovi installs an exact rebuttal:
तत्त्वतां पातले जगीं— kaivalya is already truly-attained in the world by the niṣkāma-svadharma practitioner. - When you are tempted to wait for retirement to finally start spiritual practice — this ovi closes that escape route. The kaivalya-attainment is described in past-tense (
पातले— have attained), located in the world, conditional only on niṣkāmatā-by-svadharma. Now is the only available location.
Sādhanā
Today: at the end of the workday, write one sentence: Today I performed [specific task] without craving its fruit. If no honest sentence can be written, that is the data — tomorrow's task is named. If one honest sentence can be written, you have, by Jñāneśvar's reading, touched कैवल्यपद for that moment.
Arc
Cluster closes on the soteriological pay-off — कैवल्यपद attained जगीं — and prepares BG-3.20's Janaka-exemplar: the famous king who attained perfection through action alone (कर्मणैव हि संसिद्धिमास्थिता जनकादयः). The doctrine is laid; the historical proof-case follows.
Cluster summary
Core teaching: Therefore — perform svadharma-action constantly, devoid of all desire; those who follow svadharma-as-niṣkāmatā have truly attained kaivalya in this very world.
Theme tags: niṣkāma-karma, svadharma, kaivalya, karma-yoga-apex, BG-3.19, asakta, canonical-anchor.
Contains extended metaphor: No. Two compact doctrinal-imperative ovis; no extended images.
Chapter-arc position: Adhyāya-3's central imperative-summary statement. After the long doctrinal build-up (BG-3.4 = no-karma-sannyāsa impossible; BG-3.5-8 = nature-compels-action; BG-3.9-16 = yajña-cosmology; BG-3.17-18 = ātmārāma exemption clause), BG-3.19 = तस्मात् (therefore) lands the operational instruction. The तस्मात् marks this as the chapter's load-bearing imperative — the entire chapter's argument funnels into these two ovis.
Connects to next śloka: BG-3.20 immediately gives the historical exemplar — King Janaka attained संसिद्धि (perfection) कर्मणैव हि (by action alone) — proving the imperative works in lived royal-householder practice, not just in doctrine. Cluster 0117 will unfold that.
Structural note on तस्मात्: Sanskrit conditional-imperatives often hinge on a तस्मात् or अतः that lands the chapter's argumentative weight. BG-3.19's तस्मात् is one of the three or four most load-bearing in the entire Gītā (compare BG-2.18 तस्माद् युध्यस्व, BG-2.50 तस्माद् योगाय युज्यस्व, BG-8.7 तस्मात् सर्वेषु कालेषु). Each तस्मात् marks a transition from doctrinal-build-up to operational-imperative. Worth tracking corpus-wide as a structural marker.
Translation discipline preserved: Jñāneśvar's two-ovi rendering maps Sanskrit terms one-to-one: तस्मात्→म्हणौनि, असक्तः→कामरहितु, सततं→नियतु, कार्यं कर्म→स्वधर्म, समाचर→रहाटें, परम→कैवल्यपद, आप्नोति→पातले, पूरुष→ते जे अनुसरले — plus the load-bearing interpretive addition of जगीं (in-the-world) closing the kaivalya-as-jīvanmukti reading.