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Chapter 3 · Karma-yoga · 43 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps

1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.

Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›

Duty & actionChapter 3 · Karma-yoga

3.24 3.26

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 3.25

Exemplary action and leadership by example

Karma · Action

सक्ताः कर्मण्यविद्वांसो यथा कुर्वन्ति भारत ।

कुर्याद्विद्वांस्तथासक्तश्चिकीर्षुर्लोकसङ्‍‍ग्रहम् ॥ २५ ॥

saktāḥ karmaṇy avidvāṁso

yathā kurvanti bhārata

kuryād vidvāṁs tathāsaktaś

cikīrṣur loka-saṅgraham

Translation

As the ignorant perform their duties with attachment to results, the learned may similarly act, but without attachment, for the sake of leading people on the right path.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Act Without Attachment

1
The learned do their duties without attachment to results, guiding others on the right path.
2
Prabhupāda explains that similar actions can serve different desires: pleasing one's senses or pleasing Kṛṣṇa.
3
Set an example by acting to please Kṛṣṇa and using the results for Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Key points from the purport

Compares attached and detached worker and thus establishes that self-realized person performs duties to set proper example for common people

‘Ignorant’ – work with attachment

‘Self-realized’

Work without attachment

To set the example and lead people on the right path

Basis of differentiation between attached and detached worker – ‘Desire’

27 and 3.28. Texts 3.25, 3.27 & 3.28 deal with a common them — The differences between the attached and detached worker. Texts 3.26 and 3.29 deal with another common them: How a detached person deals with an attached person.

Connected verses · 1

Texts 3.25 & 3.26

If a person in knowledge is expected to set an example, then why

don’t they set an example of renunciation? ANSWER — Most people are not qualified to follow the example of renunciation. If an attached person renounces worldly responsibilities, he will eventually try to fulfill desires through irresponsible means