3.1 Arjuna said: If you hold that understanding is superior to action, O Janardana, why then do you urge me to this terrible deed, O Keshava?

3.2 With seemingly conflicting words you confuse my understanding; tell me with certainty the one way by which I may attain the highest good.

3.3 The messenger Krishna conveyed the word of God: In this world a twofold path was taught by Me of old, O sinless one — the path of knowledge for the contemplative and the path of action for the active.

3.4 Not by abstaining from action does a man attain freedom from action, nor by mere renunciation does he attain perfection.

3.5 For no one can remain even for a moment without acting; everyone is made to act, helplessly, by the qualities born of nature that God created.

3.6 He who restrains the organs of action but sits dwelling in his mind on the objects of sense, deluded in himself — he is called a hypocrite.

3.7 But he who, controlling the senses by the mind, O Arjuna, undertakes disciplined action with the organs of action, without attachment — he excels.

3.8 Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction; even the sustenance of your body would not be possible without action.

3.9 This world is bound by action, except action done as worship of God; do your work for His sake, O son of Kunti, free from attachment.

3.10 In the beginning, when God created mankind, He ordained worship and righteous offering together with them, and said: By this you shall prosper; let this be your fulfiller of good desires.

3.11 By this worship and offering, honour God, and God will sustain you; by serving Him and one another you shall attain the highest good.

3.12 God, honoured by your devotion, will grant you the provisions you desire. He who enjoys God's gifts without giving thanks and sharing them is a thief.

3.13 The righteous, who eat what remains after giving in charity for God's sake, are freed from all sins; but the wicked who cook only for themselves eat sin.

3.14 From food creatures come into being; from rain food is produced; rain comes by God's mercy in answer to righteous worship, and worship is born of action.

3.15 Know that righteous action arises from the revealed word, and the revealed word comes from God, the Imperishable; therefore the all-pervading word is ever present in righteous worship.

3.16 He who does not follow here the wheel thus set in motion by God, O son of Pritha, living in sin and delighting in the senses, lives in vain.

3.17 But the man who delights in God alone, who is satisfied in God and content in Him — for him there is no further duty that binds.

3.18 For him there is no interest here in what is done or what is not done, nor does he depend on any creature for any purpose; his reliance is on God alone.

3.19 Therefore, without attachment, always perform the work that has to be done; for by performing action without attachment, a man attains the Supreme.

3.20 Indeed, by action alone Janaka and others attained perfection. Considering also the welfare of the world, you should act.

3.21 Whatever the best of men does, others follow; whatever standard he sets, the world follows.

3.22 There is nothing in the three worlds, O son of Pritha, that God must do, nor anything unattained that He needs to attain; yet His command upholds all action without ceasing.

3.23 For if God's sustaining command were to cease even for a moment, O son of Pritha, all would fall into ruin, and men would follow that path in every way.

3.24 These worlds would perish if God did not sustain them by His work; there would be confusion of the order, and all creatures would be destroyed.

3.25 As the ignorant act from attachment to action, O Bharata, so should the wise act without attachment, desiring the welfare of the world.

3.26 Let not the wise unsettle the understanding of the ignorant who are attached to action; let him rather, acting with discipline, engage them in all good works.

3.27 All actions are performed by the qualities of nature which God created; but the one deluded by pride thinks, "I am the doer."

3.28 But he who knows the truth about the divisions of the qualities and their actions, O mighty-armed, knowing that the qualities act upon the qualities, is not attached.

3.29 Those deluded by the qualities of nature are attached to the works of the qualities; let not the one who knows the whole unsettle the slow-witted who know only in part.

3.30 Surrendering all actions to God, with your mind fixed on Him, free from desire and selfishness, fight, freed from the fever of grief.

3.31 Those men who constantly follow this teaching of Mine, with faith and without cavilling, are released from the bondage of action.

3.32 But those who cavil at it and do not follow My teaching, deluded in all knowledge, know them to be lost and without sense.

3.33 Even the man of knowledge acts according to his own nature; beings follow their nature; what will restraint achieve?

3.34 Attraction and aversion lie in wait in the senses for their objects; let none come under their sway, for they are his enemies on the path.

3.35 Better is one's own duty, though imperfectly done, than the duty of another well performed; better is death in one's own duty; the duty of another is fraught with danger.

3.36 Arjuna said: But by what is a man impelled to commit sin, O descendant of Vrishni, even against his will, as if driven by force?

3.37 The messenger Krishna conveyed: It is desire, it is anger, born of the quality of passion — all-devouring and most sinful. Know this to be the enemy here.

3.38 As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo by the womb, so is this wisdom covered by desire.

3.39 Knowledge is covered by this constant enemy of the wise, O son of Kunti, in the form of desire, an insatiable fire.

3.40 The senses, the mind and the understanding are said to be its seat; through these it covers knowledge and deludes the embodied soul.

3.41 Therefore, O best of the Bharatas, first restrain the senses and slay this sinful thing that destroys knowledge and discernment.

3.42 The senses, they say, are great; greater than the senses is the mind; greater than the mind is the understanding; and greater than the understanding is the soul that God breathed into man.

3.43 Thus knowing that which is greater than the understanding, and steadying yourself by God's guidance, slay, O mighty-armed, the enemy in the form of desire, so hard to overcome.