Chapter 3 of Bhagavad Gita and Purusha Sukta Essay

Chapter 3 of Bhagavad Gita and Purusha Sukta - Essay Example â€Å"The Way of Action† shows the state of mind of Arjuna in dealing with the dilemma of choosing between accomplishing his duties as a warrior to fight his own people and his love for his relatives. He seeks the answer to his problems with Lord Krishna, questioning Him why one should engage himself in an action which will cause so much chaos to human lives. In the end, Lord Krishna let Arjuna understand about the duties of each individual to his own self, to his family and to the society (Schweig 57-58). An individual cannot achieve freedom from action without entering upon action. He cannot reach perfection as well by just renouncing a certain action. Everyone is driven to action instinctively and so he must perform his duties for action is better to inaction. These various levels of duties of man comprise the essence of Karma Yoga. Karma, or action, aims that a person should â€Å"attain a stage where any action is not bound by desire for results† (Varma). With this , one must not control the indrivas by will; instead remain unattached to the results in order to perform selfless action. By doing work without attachment, a man attains supreme bliss. For example, the Karma followed by the head of the household in different levels of society is that he is a husband to his wife, a father to his children, and also a boss to many employees working with him, all at the same time (Varma). Yagya or sacrifice is another theme of the third chapter of â€Å"Bhagavad Gita†. Lord Krishna teachers Arjuna that mankind will prosper only when he learns how to give. Man is bound by the actions that he performs unless he does them as a sacrifice (Schweig 59-60). For instance, Lord Krishna by virtue of his holiness has no duty to perform but he chooses to work so that man can achieve a level of spirituality by following his examples. In one of the verses, Arjuna asks Lord Krishna how man commits sin, to which Lord Krishna answers that it is because of desire , for desire lives in the senses, mind and intellect. For a man to attain knowledge, he must control his senses with his mind through his intellect so that desire can be overcome and therefore attain knowledge. Thus, a worldly-minded man is self-centered while a man enlightened with Karma Yogi has overcome self-centeredness and strives to work for the benefit of all (Varma). The essence of the teachings of Lord Krishna and his universal form as exemplified in â€Å"Bhagavad Gita† closely resembles to that of the Purusha Sukta. Like Bhrama in the Upanishads, Lord Krishna was identified in Gita with eternity so that his intransience can be attributed in his divine role as the regulator of human society. According to Bandyopadhyaya (91), â€Å"the ideological objective was the same as that of the Purusha Sukta and Advaita philosophy, namely to rationalize, legitimize and sanctify the prevailing class-caste in the face of the developing contradictions within that structure.† Lansdowne (15) defines Purusha Sukta as â€Å"