श्रीभगवानुवाच |
लोकेऽस्मिन्द्विविधा निष्ठा पुरा प्रोक्ता मयानघ |
ज्ञानयोगेन साङ्ख्यानां कर्मयोगेन योगिनाम् || 3||
śhrī bhagavān uvācha
loke ’smin dvi-vidhā niṣhṭhā purā proktā mayānagha
jñāna-yogena sāṅkhyānāṁ karma-yogena yoginām
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha—the Blessed Lord said; loke—in the world; asmin—this; dvi-vidhā—two kinds of; niṣhṭhā—faith; purā—previously; proktā—explained; mayā—by me (Shree Krishna); anagha—sinless; jñāna-yogena—through the path of knowledge; sānkhyānām—for those inclined toward contemplation; karma-yogena—through the path of action; yoginām—of the yogis
Translation:
The Blessed Lord said: O sinless Arjuna! In ancient times two paths of spiritual description were spoken by me – the Jnana yoga for the followers of the path of knowledge, and Karma yoga for the followers of the path of action.
Commentary:
O Sinless: Arjuna is free from sin. So he is fully qualified to receive the highest wisdom. When the cloth is clean, it can be dyed in any colour. The Lord knew the purity of Arjuna’s mind, and therefore he chose to teach him Brahma Vidya. Each individual, according to his ingrained disposition, seeks the path which is congenial to his nature. Some are born with an intellectual frame of mind and the path for them is that of enquiring into the Self (Jnana yoga). For these, the Lord taught the path of knowledge. Others are born with a practical temperament, and they love action. For them, the Lord pointed out another path – karma yoga. Each man is perfectly free to choose his own path. There is no compulsion. Any course of imposed discipline will go against nature, and will not yield the desired result. There may be many roads leading to the same destination. There may be different routes to climb up a peak. Any route will ultimately take the people to the top of the mountain. So the Lord here declares that man may follow any path which is agreeable to his character and reach the goal. Though in the Gita several yogas are stated, all of them can be brought under these two main divisions – Jnana Yoga and Karma Yoga.
The Lord says that he taught the two-fold path in times immemorial. So he is beyond time and place. He is Paramatma, appearing in the form of Sri Krishna and teaching the highest om to humanity.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
Arjuna asks: “You just advised action, and yet you uphold knowledge of Brahman as the highest form of life. Krishna, if you think that knowledge is better than action, why do you tell me to act?” [Shri Krishna]: “From ancient times these two systems have come down to us. The Sankhya philosophers advance the theory of knowledge. The Yogis advance the theory of work.[Source]
But it is a most difficult thing to give up the clinging to this universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that mentioned in our books. One is called the “neti, neti ” (not this, not this), the other is called “iti ” (this); the former is the negative, and the latter is the positive way. The negative way is the most difficult. It is only possible to the men of the very highest, exceptional minds and gigantic wills who simply stand up and say, “No, I will not have this,” and the mind and body obey their will, and they come out successful. But such people are very rare. The vast majority of mankind choose the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind lets them all go at last and becomes unattached. The former way of obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is through work and experience. The first is the path of jnana-yoga and is characterized by the refusal to do any work; the second is that of karma-yoga, in which there is no cessation from work.[Source]
