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Study a Verse
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Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 3.8
नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः ।
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः ॥ ८ ॥
niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ
karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ
śarīra-yātrāpi ca te
na prasidhyed akarmaṇaḥ
Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work.
Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.ioWhat this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.
3 study points
Do your prescribed duty: work is better than inaction, and even the body needs work to survive.
Prabhupāda explains that Kṛṣṇa wanted Arjuna to do his duties, which gradually purify the heart, rather than pretend to renounce work.
Carry out your duties instead of giving up work and depending on others while material desires remain.
Recommends Arjuna that his prescribed duty as ksatriya is “Fighting or Work” and not “renunciation”, as per discussion in Text 2.47 “Karmany evadhikaras te…”
One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work
Texts 3.8 & 3.9
Arjuna wanted to avoid work out of fear that he will develop material attachments and desires and especially he fears the reaction that follows this work. Lord speaks Text 3.9 to differentiate ordinary entangling work from ‘Karma-yoga’, which carries one to liberation.
Work combined with knowledge and detachment
Offer the fruit of the work for the satisfaction of Krishna
Niskama-karma-yoga allows the soul (active by nature) to be purified through detached activities
Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.
The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.
Key ideas: karma, sva-dharma.
Take one thing from this verse into your day.
What does BG 3.8 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to duty & action?
Do one task today purely because it is right.
Mahābhārata episodes and stories from the purports that shed light on this verse.
Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.
Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.