Cluster 0122 — BG 3.25 (सक्ताः कर्मण्यविद्वांसो — As the Unwise Act Attached, So the Wise Should Act Unattached)

BG-3.25

The doctrinal-apex of the chapter's exemplary-action arc. Clusters 0118–0121 (BG-3.20–3.24) built the argument: Janaka's example (3.20), the wise-one's duty to the world (3.21), the Lord's own paradox-of-acting-while-needless (3.22), the structural reason (3.23 — if I did not act, men would follow my path), the catastrophic-negative form (3.24 — worlds would perish). Now BG-3.25 supplies the positive prescription: सक्ताः कर्मण्यविद्वांसो यथा कुर्वन्ति भारत — कुर्याद्विद्वांस्तथाऽसक्तश्चिकीर्षुर्लोकसङ्ग्रहम् — as the unwise act with attachment to action, O Bhārata, so should the wise act, unattached, desiring loka-sangraha. The prescription's striking move is the yathā-tathā parallel: the wise are to act just as (यथा... तथा) the attached unwise act — the same outward fullness of engagement — but with the inverted inner-form (asakta, unattached) and the displaced telos (cikīrṣuḥ loka-sangraham, desiring the holding-together of the worlds).

Three ovis (3.169, 3.170, 3.171) accomplish the unfolding with great economy. (1) 3.169 names the manner: be कर्मीं भरु (full-of-action) like the कामकु (desire-driven actor), निराशाही (yet without fruit-hope). The outward form of the wise one's engagement is to look indistinguishable from the attached one's; the discriminating mark is the inner निराशा (non-hope-of-fruit). (2) 3.170 names the reason: पुढतपुढतीं पार्था — हे सकळ लोकसंस्था रक्षणीय सर्वथा — again and again, Pārtha, this whole social-institutional order is to be protected in every way. Jñāneśvar's translation of loka-sangraha as लोकसंस्था (the social-institutional order) concretizes the doctrine: the holding-together is read as a social order that the wise one's action is owed to. (3) 3.171 names the conduct: three imperatives — मार्गाधारें वर्तावें (act on the basis of the established road), विश्व हें मोहरें लावावें (turn this world forward / lead the world toward [the path]), अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति (do not become alaukika — non-worldly / extra-ordinary — toward the people). The third imperative is the anti-spectacle discipline that the very next cluster (0123, BG-3.26) will state categorically: do not produce buddhi-bheda in the ignorant by displaying non-engagement.

Stage-thread. All three ovis tagged at karma-yoga-arc position 2 (svadharma), with the note loka-sangraha sub-aspect. Per discipline: loka-sangraha is not a separate seeded position — it is a sub-aspect of svadharma (the wise-one's svadharma carries an explicit duty-to-the-watching-world). The position-2 re-anchoring is doctrinally exact: BG-3.25 prescribes the vidvān-kuryāt — the wise-one's-svadharma-doing. Chapter-arc thread chain now reads: 2.264 (position 1, niṣkāma-karma, cluster 0074) → 3.78–3.80 (position 2, svadharma, cluster 0106) → 3.81–3.85 (position 3, yajña, cluster 0107) → 3.150–3.151 (position 1 imperative-summary, cluster 0116) → 3.164-3.165 (position 3 loka-sangraha-preface, cluster 0120) → 3.169-3.171 (position 2 loka-sangraha sub-aspect, this cluster).

Ovi 3.169

Original (Marathi): देखैं फळाचिया आशा । आचरे कामकु जैसा । कर्मीं भरु होआवा तैसा । निराशाही ॥१६९॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (sustained Kṛṣṇa-speech continuing from cluster 0120's 3.160 and through cluster 0121's BG-3.24 commentary; the opening देखैं is a generic Old-Marathi narrative-imperative — per cluster 0075's lesson, NOT a voice-shift marker; the comparison-clause कामकु जैसा ... तैसा is Kṛṣṇa setting up the BG-3.25 yathā-tathā parallel for Arjuna; the imperative होआवा ("let [him] become") is the standard Marathi deontic in Kṛṣṇa's prescriptive register)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
देखैं	behold / see (generic Old-Marathi narrative-imperative)
फळाचिया आशा	in fruit-hope / with hope-of-fruit
आचरे	acts / engages
कामकु	the desire-driven actor (kāmaka) — Jñāneśvar's figure for the Sanskrit sakta + avidvāms pair
जैसा	just-as / in-the-manner-that
कर्मीं भरु	full-of-action / completely in action
होआवा	let [him] become
तैसा	in-that-same-manner / so-too
निराशाही	even-while-without-hope / desirelessly nonetheless

Literal translation

English: "Behold — just as the desire-driven actor (the kāmaka) engages in [action] with hope-of-fruit, so too [the wise] is to become full-of-action — yet desirelessly."

मराठी (आधुनिक): "पाहा — जसा फळाची आशा धरून कामना-वश माणूस कर्म करतो, तसाच ज्ञानी पुरुषाने कर्मात पूर्णपणे गुंतावे — परंतु निराश (फळ-निरीच्छ) राहूनच."

The ovi unfolds the yathā-tathā parallel of BG-3.25 with one striking translation-move: the Sanskrit pair sakta (attached) + avidvāms (unwise) is collapsed into a single Marathi figure, कामकु (kāmaka — the desire-driven actor). Two Sanskrit adjectives become one Marathi personified noun. The figure functions as the outward model for the wise one's mode of action: look at this man, full-of-action, fruit-hoping; engage like that — but with the inner-form inverted.

The discriminating qualifier is निराशाही — even-while-without-hope. The Old Marathi निराशा (lit. without-hope) is the inner-form mark of the wise; the suffix -ही (even, also, nonetheless) does precise work: it signals that the outer engagement and the inner non-hope are simultaneous, not alternating. The wise one is NOT alternating between fruit-hoping action and detached withdrawal; the wise one is engaging-with-fullness AND being-without-hope at the same time, in the same act. This is the structural core of niṣkāma-karma: the simultaneity of full outward engagement and complete inner non-hope.

The Sanskrit's सक्ताः ... यथा कुर्वन्ति ... कुर्याद्विद्वान् असक्तः (the attached-unwise act in such a way... the wise should act unattached) is condensed into the Marathi's कामकु जैसा ... कर्मीं भरु होआवा तैसा निराशाही (as the kāmaka engages... let [the wise] so become full-of-action — desirelessly). The Sanskrit prescription is preserved structurally and tightened semantically.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi. The कामकु जैसा ... तैसा is a simile-of-comparison (look-like-this-man) rather than an extended figure with a tenor-vehicle structure that needs unfolding. The comparison is structural, not pictorial: the outer form of the wise one's action is being mapped onto the outer form of the desire-driven actor's action.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. The cluster's register is socio-political-pedagogical, not subtle-body. No cakra/suṣumnā/kuṇḍalinī terminology is present, anticipated, or implicit.

Cross-references

Internal:
developed-further from 3.150-3.151 (cluster 0116, BG-3.19). The imperative-summary कामरहितु ... स्वधर्मु ... रहाटें — परम कैवल्यपद जगीं पातले (desire-free, act svadharma, attain supreme kaivalya in-the-world) is here given its visible-form specification: the desire-free svadharma-doing should look like the desire-driven kāmaka's doing. BG-3.19's negative-positive imperative gets its visible-form prescription at BG-3.25 / 3.169.
developed-further from 3.164 (cluster 0120). The साकांक्षु कां होय जैसा (as-if-with-an-aim) register of the Lord's own acting is generalized here from the Lord-as-actor to the wise-one-as-actor. The Sanskrit's चिकीर्षुः (desiring) at BG-3.25 is the verb-form precisely of the साकांक्षु posture; the same disposition under different Sanskrit roots.
Tukaram parallel: Tukaram abhang 64 (कर्मफळ म्हणुनी इच्छूं नये काम — do not desire action calling it karma-fruit) is the most direct Vārkarī rendering of the BG-3.19 / BG-3.25 imperative. Substantive resonance on the inner-form: कर्मफळ इच्छूं नये (do not desire fruit-of-action) is the bhajan-Marathi formula for 3.169's निराशाही. Tukaram inherits the wise-one's-outer-engagement-and-inner-non-desire posture wholesale into Vārkarī householder-bhakti vocabulary.
Source citations:
Bhagavad Gītā 3.25 — direct-paraphrase. सक्ताः कर्मणि अविद्वांसः यथा कुर्वन्ति → देखैं फळाचिया आशा आचरे कामकु जैसा. Two Sanskrit adjectives become one Marathi personified figure (kāmaka). The qualifier निराशाही is Jñāneśvar's explicit-naming of the Sanskrit's asakta.
Bhagavad Gītā 3.19 — developed-further. The तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर imperative of BG-3.19 is here given its visible-form specification: the asakta-action should LOOK like the sakta-action.

Modern application

When you have done your craft long enough that you no longer hunger for the praise that came with the first competence — and you watch a junior colleague who is striving, fully-engaged, fruit-hoping — and you notice that your engagement should look identical to theirs from the outside. The ovi's prescription: do not down-shift the outward fullness as the inward hope subsides. Keep the भरु (full-of-action) form even as the आशा (hope-of-fruit) drops out. This is the operational meaning of निराशाही in a workplace.
When you are a long-married person attending to your spouse's needs without the romantic-anticipation of the first years — and you notice yourself going through the motions in a diminished form (the perfunctory hug, the half-listened-to story). The ovi names the failure-mode: you have let the outer-form follow the inner-form into reduction. The prescription: keep the outer engagement at full strength (कर्मीं भरु होआवा तैसा) even though the inner anticipation is no longer there. Niṣkāma-action looks like a full-presence married-love from the outside; only the inner-form has shifted.
When you are a parent of a teenager who no longer needs you for the things they once needed you for — and you find yourself withdrawing into a partial parenting (offering less because it is less wanted). The ovi corrects: keep showing up just as (जैसा ... तैसा) the parent of the dependent toddler showed up — full engagement, the daily protein-rich meals, the attended games — and let the inner-form be the non-hoping निराशा (no fruit-of-being-valued, no fruit-of-being-needed). The visible parenting is the same; only the inward economy has shifted.

Sādhanā

Today, find one situation in which you have allowed your outer-engagement to drop in proportion to your inner-engagement having dropped — a meeting you now attend more passively because you no longer care about the outcome, a relationship-act you now perform more thinly because the romance has gone, a craft-task you now do at 70% because the novelty is gone. Restore the outer-engagement to 100% — कर्मीं भरु होआवा तैसा — explicitly without trying to restore the inner-engagement. Notice that this is harder than it sounds, and that doing it is the structural form of niṣkāma-karma.

Arc

Having named the manner of the wise-one's acting (look like the desire-driven; be desire-free), Kṛṣṇa in 3.170 will name why: because the whole social-institutional order is to be protected.

Ovi 3.170

Original (Marathi): जे पुढतपुढतीं पार्था । हे सकळ लोकसंस्था । रक्षणीय सर्वथा । म्हणौनियां ॥१७०॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (conclusive voice-anchor: explicit vocative पार्था — Arjuna-vocative, unambiguous Kṛṣṇa-to-Arjuna marker; the पुढतपुढतीं (again-and-again) is Jñāneśvar reading Kṛṣṇa as re-emphasizing the doctrine already heard in clusters 0119-0121)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
जे	because / which is to say
पुढतपुढतीं	again-and-again / repeatedly / over-and-over
पार्था	O Pārtha (Arjuna-vocative)
हे	this
सकळ	whole / entire
लोकसंस्था	social-institutional order / loka-samsthā — Jñāneśvar's concretizing translation of loka-sangraha
रक्षणीय	to-be-protected (gerundive)
सर्वथा	in every way / by all means / absolutely
म्हणौनियां	for that reason / on account of [this]

Literal translation

English: "Because, again and again, O Pārtha — this entire social-institutional order is to be protected in every way — therefore [the wise one is to act as the kāmaka acts]."

मराठी (आधुनिक): "कारण, पुन्हा पुन्हा सांगतो, हे पार्था — ही सर्व लोक-संस्था (समाज-व्यवस्था) सर्वथा रक्षण करण्या-योग्य आहे — म्हणून [ज्ञानी पुरुषाने कामकाप्रमाणे कर्म करावे]."

Three things to mark.

(1) The translation लोकसंस्था for the Sanskrit लोकसङ्ग्रह is interpretively load-bearing. Loka-sangraha literally means the holding-together of the worlds — a fairly abstract cosmic-pedagogical noun (the same root sam-grah gives us graha as in graha-samgraha — bringing-together, collecting, integrating). Jñāneśvar renders it by the Old Marathi लोकसंस्था — loka-samsthā — which uses the institutional-order suffix -samsthā (the same root that gives us modern Marathi संस्था for "institution / organization / society"). This is a concretizing translation: the abstract holding-together-of-worlds is read as a concrete social institution that the wise one's action is owed to. The interpretive load is significant — Jñāneśvar is reading the BG-3.25 doctrine as a doctrine of social-institutional duty, not merely cosmic-pedagogical exemplification. The wise are duty-bound to the सकळ लोकसंस्था (the whole social institution).

(2) The gerundive रक्षणीय (to-be-protected) with the intensifier सर्वथा (in-every-way) carries the deontic weight. The social order is not merely deserving-of-protection in some weak sense; it is रक्षणीय सर्वथा — to-be-protected in every way, by all means, absolutely. The strong-form deontic is then linked to the prior-ovi prescription by म्हणौनियां (for-that-reason / on-account-of): because the social order is to-be-protected, therefore the wise should act कर्मीं भरु (full-of-action) like the kāmaka. The structure of the argument is: deontic → prescription. The duty to the social order generates the prescription to act fully-engaged.

(3) The marker पुढतपुढतीं (again-and-again) is Jñāneśvar reading Kṛṣṇa as re-stating, not newly stating. The doctrine of duty-to-the-watching-world has already been heard from the Lord in clusters 0119-0121 (the Lord's own I-act-because-watched paradox) and is now being given its prescriptive form for the wise. The wise are not getting new content — they are getting the explicit positive-form of a content already established by the cosmic-exemplar. This is a pedagogical compression: from cosmic-fact (the Lord acts, and creatures follow) to human-prescription (therefore the wise should act, and so should you).

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi. The register is institutional-deontic (लोकसंस्था, रक्षणीय, सर्वथा) — no figures to unfold.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. As with 3.169, the cluster's register is socio-political; no subtle-body content.

Cross-references

Internal:
developed-further from 3.169. 3.169 named the manner (look like the kāmaka); 3.170 supplies the reason (the social order is to be protected). The two ovis are a manner-reason pair.
developed-further from 3.165 (cluster 0120). 3.165 named the cosmic-sovereignty ground of the Lord's exemplary action (भूतजात सकळ असे आम्हांचि आधीन — तरी न व्हावें बरळ); 3.170 generalizes the same structural duty to the wise-one (हे सकळ लोकसंस्था रक्षणीय सर्वथा). The Lord's must-not-be-negligent (3.165) and the wise-one's the-social-order-is-to-be-protected (3.170) are the same deontic, generalized from cosmic-exemplar to human-exemplar.
Tukaram parallel: (empty — the reason-ovi names a socio-political deontic — the social institution is to be protected — that does not have a clean Vārkarī twin from below. Tukaram's mode is the bhakta's relation-to-the-Lord, not the wise-one's-relation-to-the-social-institution. Honest gap; better empty than wrong.)
Source citations:
Bhagavad Gītā 3.25 — direct-paraphrase. चिकीर्षुर्लोकसङ्ग्रहम् → हे सकळ लोकसंस्था रक्षणीय सर्वथा. loka-sangraha → loka-samsthā (the concretizing institutional-order translation). The Sanskrit nominalized sangraha (collection / holding-together) becomes the Marathi institutional noun samsthā — a translation move with significant interpretive load.
Bhagavad Gītā 3.24 — echo. उपहन्यामिमाः प्रजाः (BG-3.24: I would destroy these creatures) is the polar-catastrophic form whose positive-prescription is BG-3.25 / 3.170 (the social order is to be protected). The same content stated from the negative-cosmic side and the positive-imperative side.

Modern application

When you are a public-school teacher, a hospital nurse, a small-town doctor — someone whose job description IS the maintenance of a social institution — and you have been considering whether to leave for a higher-paying private-sector role — and the ovi names what you have known: the लोकसंस्था you are part of is रक्षणीय सर्वथा (to-be-protected in every way), and the wise-one's relation to it is one of institutional duty. The ovi does not forbid leaving; it names what is at stake in leaving.
When you are watching public discourse degrade — voting participation declining, civic institutions hollowing, neighborly conduct eroding — and you have been internally arguing about whether maintaining the small civic-acts (showing up to the school board meeting, calling the elderly neighbor, voting in the local election) is worth it given the scale of the erosion — and the ovi names the structural answer: those acts are the protection-of-the-लोकसंस्था and the protection is सर्वथा (in every way, including the small acts). The wise one's relation to the social institution is not cost-benefit-calculated; it is deontic.
When you have arrived at a competence — in your craft, your role as a senior — and you have noticed an impulse to step back from social-institutional involvement because you have "done your share" — and the ovi corrects: the wise-one's relation to loka-samsthā is not a quota that fills up. It is structural. As long as the loka-samsthā exists and you are within it, the deontic रक्षणीय सर्वथा applies to you. Stepping back is baraḷa (cluster 0120's term for the Lord's potential dereliction).

Sādhanā

Today, identify one small civic-institutional act that you have been letting slide — a community-meeting you have stopped attending, a neighborly check-in you have stopped doing, a workplace-mentorship gesture you have stopped offering, a parent-teacher-association engagement you have stopped honoring. Restore one such act, just for today, and recite to yourself as you do it: हे सकळ लोकसंस्था रक्षणीय सर्वथा — this whole social-institutional order is to be protected in every way. Notice that the act, when done in this register, is doctrinally distinct from the same act done out of duty-anxiety or out of social-pressure.

Arc

Having named the manner (3.169) and the reason (3.170), Kṛṣṇa in 3.171 will name the conduct: three operational imperatives — act-by-the-road, turn-the-world-toward-it, do-not-display-extra-ordinariness.

Ovi 3.171

Original (Marathi): मार्गाधारें वर्तावें । विश्व हें मोहरें लावावें । अलौकिक नोहावें । लोकांप्रति ॥१७१॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (sustained Kṛṣṇa-speech; the three deontic-passive imperatives वर्तावें / लावावें / नोहावें are the standard Old-Marathi form for Kṛṣṇa prescribing conduct to Arjuna — same form as cluster 0120's 3.165 न व्हावें बरळ; no editorial framing-phrase intrudes; the cluster sits inside the unbroken Kṛṣṇa-stretch beginning at 3.160)

Word-by-word gloss

Marathi	Meaning
मार्गाधारें	on the basis of the road / by way of the established path (mārga-ādhāra)
वर्तावें	[one] should act / engage
विश्व हें	this world / this universe-of-people
मोहरें लावावें	[one] should turn-toward / direct-forward (मोहरें — toward the front, forward-facing)
अलौकिक	non-worldly / extra-ordinary / alaukika (lit. not-of-loka)
नोहावें	[one] should not become
लोकांप्रति	toward the people / in relation to the people

Literal translation

English: "[The wise one] should act on the basis of the established road; should turn this world forward [toward the path]; should not become alaukika (non-worldly / extra-ordinary) toward the people."

मराठी (आधुनिक): "ज्ञानी पुरुषाने मार्गाच्या आधाराने वर्तावे; हे विश्व त्या मार्गाकडे वळवावे; लोकांप्रति अलौकिक — असामान्य, लोकातीत — दिसून नये."

Three imperatives stacked back-to-back. Each is operationally significant.

(1) मार्गाधारें वर्तावें — act on the basis of the established road. The Old Marathi मार्ग (the road, the path) refers here to the established dharma-marga, the customary social-religious path that ordinary people follow. The wise one's conduct is to be मार्गाधारें — on the basis of (आधार — support, ground) — this path. Not above it, not eccentric to it, not improvising. The wise one uses the established road as the ground of his action. This is significant: the prescription is NOT invent the path that fits your realization; the prescription IS use the path the unwise are walking on. The wise-one's action is intentionally on the road — visible, joinable, followable.

(2) विश्व हें मोहरें लावावें — turn this world forward / direct this world [toward the road]. The Old Marathi मोहरें (toward-the-front, forward-facing) names the direction-of-orientation; लावावें (apply, attach, turn-toward) is the active verb. The wise one's action is to direct the world's orientation toward the road. This is the positive-active form of the loka-sangraha doctrine: not merely do-not-disturb the world's path (the BG-3.26 corollary), but actively orient the world toward the path. The wise-one's exemplary conduct is direction-giving, not just non-disrupting.

(3) अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति — do not become alaukika (non-worldly / extra-ordinary) toward the people. This is the discriminating mark and the most striking of the three. The Old Marathi अलौकिक (alaukika) literally means not-of-loka — non-worldly, beyond-the-ordinary, supra-mundane, extra-ordinary. To be अलौकिक is to be visibly not-one-of-the-people. The prescription is: do not appear so. The wise-one's relation to the people is to be नोहावें अलौकिक — not-become extra-ordinary — toward them. Even when one is extra-ordinary, one is not to display it. The Sanskrit BG-3.26 will state the corollary categorically (do-not-produce-buddhi-disturbance-in-the-ignorant); here at BG-3.25 Jñāneśvar is already anticipating it.

The three imperatives together form the operational content of the vidvān-asakta-cikīrṣuḥ-loka-sangraham prescription: be on-the-road, turn-the-world-toward-the-road, do-not-display-not-being-of-the-road. The wise-one's conduct is doubly disguised — disguised as ordinary toward the people, and disguised as कामकु जैसा (like the desire-driven actor) in its outward form.

This anti-spectacle discipline has a particular force in the Vārkarī tradition that received the Dnyāneśvarī. The sant-mode in Maharashtra is precisely this: the sant is one-of-the-people, not above them. Tukārām's repeated refusal of being-treated-as-Deva (Tukaram 2901) is the bhakta's-side version of the same अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति discipline. The cluster lays down its conceptual ground.

Metaphor-unfold

No extended metaphor in this ovi. The मार्ग (road) is a conventional dharma-marga reference rather than an extended figure with a developed vehicle-tenor structure. The three imperatives are operational-prescriptive in register.

Nāth-yogic layer

No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. Subtle-body / cakra vocabulary continues absent throughout the cluster.

Cross-references

Internal:
developed-further from 3.169. 3.169 named the abstract paradox (look like the kāmaka, be निराशाही); 3.171 makes it operationally concrete (act-by-the-road, turn-the-world-toward-it, do-not-display-extra-ordinariness). The three imperatives are the practical translation of the 3.169 paradox into conduct.
developed-further from 3.170. 3.170 named the what (the social-institutional order is to be protected); 3.171 names the how (the three operational imperatives). The cluster's three-ovi structure is manner → reason → conduct.
foreshadows BG-3.26 / cluster 0123. अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति precisely anticipates BG-3.26's न बुद्धिभेदं जनयेदज्ञानां कर्मसङ्गिनाम् (let the wise not produce buddhi-disturbance in the ignorant who are attached to action). The anti-spectacle discipline introduced here as a third imperative becomes the categorical statement of the next cluster.
Tukaram parallel: Tukaram abhang 2901 (people-call-me-Deva — adharma-upāya; my-head-in-your-hand-with-knife; I-have-no-adhikāra; mana-knows-pāpa — Tukārām's refusal of divinization by the watching-public) is the same I-must-not-be-displayed-as-extra-ordinary discipline from the bhakta's-side. 3.171's अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति is the same discipline stated from the wise-one's-side. Substantive thematic-resonance: the mechanism is shared (refuse to occupy the extra-ordinary slot in the public's eye), even though Tukaram's mode is bhakti-humility while Jñāneśvar's is the wise-one's pedagogical-restraint.
Source citations:
Bhagavad Gītā 3.25 — direct-paraphrase. कुर्यात् ... चिकीर्षुर्लोकसङ्ग्रहम् → मार्गाधारें वर्तावें, विश्व हें मोहरें लावावें. The Sanskrit's single verb-imperative kuryāt (let [him] do) is unpacked into a triplet of positive imperatives that name the operational content of the desiring-loka-sangraha posture.
Bhagavad Gītā 3.26 — foreshadows. न बुद्धिभेदं जनयेदज्ञानां कर्मसङ्गिनाम् — let the wise not produce buddhi-disturbance in the ignorant who are attached to action. 3.171's अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति (do not become non-worldly toward the people) is the conceptual precursor — same anti-spectacle discipline. The very next cluster (0123) will state this categorically.

Modern application

When you are a long-time meditator / sādhaka who has noticed your inner-life become substantially calmer than the average colleague's — and you have been entertaining an impulse to signal this difference (a quieter manner, a "spiritually-knowing" demeanor, the carefully-chosen mention of your retreat) — and the ovi states the discipline: अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति (do-not-become extra-ordinary toward the people). The signaling-impulse is precisely what the prescription forbids. Be on the road, walk the road, do not display being-off-the-road.
When you are a senior professional whose competence has reached the point where you could quite legitimately be "above" certain ordinary craft-tasks — answering basic questions, attending introductory meetings, doing the un-glamorous standard-issue work — and you have been excusing yourself from these on the basis that they are "below your level" — and the ovi corrects: the wise-one acts मार्गाधारें (on the basis of the established road), which includes the standard-issue ordinary tasks. The road IS the road of ordinary practice. The wise are on it, not above it.
When you have arrived at any kind of clarity — about a community-question, an institutional-direction, a family-decision — and you have been wondering whether to just announce the clarity to those who haven't yet reached it — and the ovi prescribes: do-not-display-extra-ordinariness toward the people. The wise-one's mode is मोहरें लावावें (turn-the-world-toward [the path]) — direction-giving by walking-the-direction, not by announcing one's own already-arrival. The clarity is shared by demonstration, not by claim.

Sādhanā

Today, identify one situation in which you have been allowing yourself to display extra-ordinariness — a subtle signal of your spiritual-practice, a knowing reference to your meditation-retreat, a "I-already-know-this" half-smile in a meeting, a "I-don't-need-to-bother-with-this" excuse from an ordinary task. For just today, do not signal. Walk-on-the-road exactly as you would if you were not extra-ordinary. Notice that this is harder than performing extra-ordinariness, and that the difficulty is the practice.

Arc

This closes the cluster. The three ovis together unfold BG-3.25 as a complete prescription: act in the manner of the desire-driven (but desirelessly), because the whole social-institutional order is to be protected, by walking the established road and turning the world toward it without displaying extra-ordinariness. The next cluster (0123, BG-3.26) will state the corollary discipline categorically: do not produce buddhi-disturbance in the ignorant who are attached to action. The five-cluster arc (BG-3.20–3.26) is moving toward its operational-pedagogical closure.

Cluster summary

Core teaching. Just as the unwise act with attachment to action, so the wise are to act — with the outward form of full engagement (कर्मीं भरु) and the inward form of desirelessness (निराशाही) — because the whole social-institutional order (लोकसंस्था) is to be protected in every way (रक्षणीय सर्वथा) by exemplary, road-following (मार्गाधारें वर्तावें), world-orienting (विश्व मोहरें लावावें), non-extra-ordinary (अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति) conduct of the wise toward the watching people.

Theme tags. BG-3.25 · loka-sangraha-positive-prescription · vidvān-asakta · outward-engagement-inner-desirelessness · lokasamsthā-rakṣaṇīya · anti-spectacle-discipline · as-if-purposive-action.

Extended metaphor. None. The cluster is positive-prescriptive doctrinal register — Kṛṣṇa stating the operational content of the loka-sangraha doctrine. The vocabulary is structural-political (लोकसंस्था, मार्गाधारें, अलौकिक) and the rhetorical register is imperative-prescriptive, not figurative. The कामकु जैसा ... तैसा of 3.169 is a structural simile-of-comparison, not an extended figure to be unfolded.

Chapter arc position. The doctrinal-apex of the BG-3.20–3.25 exemplary-action block. Cluster 0118 (BG-3.20) opened with Janaka as exemplar; clusters 0119–0121 (BG-3.21–3.24) unfolded the Lord's own paradox-of-acting-while-needless and its catastrophic-negative form; this cluster (BG-3.25) supplies the positive prescription for the wise. The next cluster (BG-3.26) will state the corollary anti-spectacle rule. The five-cluster arc from BG-3.20 to BG-3.26 is the karma-yoga apex of adhyāya 3.

Connects to next śloka. BG-3.26 — न बुद्धिभेदं जनयेदज्ञानां कर्मसङ्गिनाम् — जोषयेत्सर्वकर्माणि विद्वान्युक्तः समाचरन् (let the wise not produce buddhi-disturbance in the ignorant who are attached to action; let him, well-disciplined, make all actions agreeable while acting himself). Already foreshadowed by 3.171's अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति. The anti-spectacle discipline introduced as a hint in this cluster will be stated categorically in the next.

Method-note. Three Jñāneśvar-additions are worth flagging corpus-wide. (i) The operative term कामकु (desire-driven actor) as the figure for the Sanskrit sakta + avidvāms pair — two Sanskrit adjectives become one Marathi personified noun, sharpening the yathā-tathā simile. (ii) The translation लोकसंस्था for loka-sangraha — a concretizing institutional-order reading that makes the political-pedagogical content explicit; this is the conceptual ground for reading the BG karma-yoga doctrine as a doctrine of social-institutional duty, not merely cosmic-pedagogical exemplification. (iii) अलौकिक नोहावें लोकांप्रति — the anti-spectacle prescription that anticipates BG-3.26 and articulates a key sant-mode (the wise-one refusing to be treated as extra-ordinary by the people); this is the conceptual ground for Tukārām's repeated refusal of divinization (Tukaram 2901), a Vārkarī mode that receives its doctrinal warrant precisely here. The cluster's compactness belies its doctrinal weight: BG-3.25 is the formal positive-prescription verse of the karma-yoga doctrine, and the Marathi unfolding gives its operational form in three short imperatives.