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The Genius of Dnyaneshwar
Dnyaneshwari Verses 32–63 Geeta Chapter 3
Chapter 33
Karma
The third chapter of the Geeta is devoted to Karma Yog. Yog, as has been explained earlier, is from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ as in ‘to yoke or harness’. This chapter, therefore, is about how to ‘harness’ oneself to karma. The word karma is actually a concept wherein it is assumed that prior to the evolution of the universe, karma was non-existent and the idea of a singularity1 or Brahma in Indian philosophy, cannot entertain the idea of karma within it. As has been seen in Chapter 27, human language fails to describe the spirit ‘behind’ or ‘before’ the universe and therefore no activity like karma can be a part of Brahma. The word ‘before’ has a special significance because it assumes ‘time’. Time began only after the universe evolved. The words evolve and evolution imply a change. And it is ‘change’ that we describe, with the help of time. Change involves movement, like in a pendulum clock, or in the spring of a clock. Even in an atomic clock it is change that is measured albeit far more precisely because the atomic vibrations are finer, more reliable and can be calibrated more accurately. This universe in its every dimension, every nook and corner, in its depths, middle and on its surface, is ‘change personified’ and this occurs over time. This change is karma. It started with what is called the ‘big bang’ in physics and since then has never stopped. It is a chain of cause and effect, the effect becoming a cause for the next change. In its purest, pristine2 meaning, karma is therefore ‘a chain of an inexorable3 change’. But this ‘chain of change’ in its most manifest form, appears to man as ‘activity’ and it is from the word ‘activity’ that the multiple meanings of the word karma are derived. Let us look at some of the meanings of the word karma — action, work, deed, execution, performance, business, duty, office, moral duty, religious rites, result, product, natural or active property, fate, the object of an action, motion or movement. Each one of these meanings either has an action or a result thereof. On this background Arjun is in double