How to Resolve Doubt and Live with Spiritual Clarity
Chapter 3 v.1-5
Clarity on the path of spiritual awakening comes through both knowledge and action.
Contents
Arjuna’s Spiritual Doubt: A Catalyst for Self-Inquiry
The Seeker’s Sincere Questioning
From Resistance to Receptivity: Arjuna’s Turning Point
Why Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough for Liberation
The Yoga of Action: Finding Freedom Through Karma Yoga
The True Meaning of Non-Action in Spiritual Life
PODCAST EPISODE: Unveiling the Yoga of Action
Spiritual clarity arises when sincere questions are brought to the light of discernment and met with steadfast receptivity.
Arjuna’s moment of spiritual confusion opens Chapter Three of the Bhagavad Gita with a timeless question—how can one live a spiritually awakened life while fulfilling worldly duties? This inquiry brings us into the heart of the Yoga of Action, where the tension between wisdom and work is not a contradiction but an opportunity for awakening.
Arjuna’s Spiritual Doubt: A Catalyst for Self-Inquiry
In Chapter One, Arjuna is overwhelmed by despair and unable to face the challenges before him. Though he asks Lord Krishna for spiritual guidance, he ultimately resists following it. In Chapter Two, through discipline and divine grace, his resistance begins to dissolve. He becomes receptive to Krishna’s teachings, gaining insight into the eternal nature of the Self, the changing nature of the world, and the mind’s essential role in living with wisdom and skill.
Now, as Chapter Three begins, Arjuna is wondering which of those two approaches to freedom are best. Knowledge or action? Contemplation or service? In the previous chapter (2:49), Krishna has said, Action is inferior by far to the yoga of wisdom. One must seek refuge in wisdom. Also, Krishna has declared that Arjuna should fight. He should engage in his dharma as a warrior, which is a troublesome vocation.
"To be free from desire, from the illusion of personal interest is the true non action and not the physical abstention from activity."
—S. Radhakrishnan
The Seeker’s Sincere Questioning
Let’s look at these opening verses in Chapter Three.
First verse (3.1), Arjuna spoke: If it is your conviction that knowledge is better than action, oh Lord, then why do you urge me to engage in this terrible action? In the next verse: With speech that seems equivalence (meaning ambiguous or open to more than one interpretation) you confuse my intelligence. Tell me surely this one thing—how should I obtain the highest good?
These first two questions that Arjuna asks reveal some insights for us about our learning—our process of learning on the spiritual path and the way of discipleship, the way of working with a spiritual teacher, and also, of course, with our own higher Self.
From Resistance to Receptivity: Arjuna’s Turning Point
As we study the Bhagavad Gita and Arjuna’s questions, we can perceive subtle changes that are taking place in his awareness—subtle changes in his receptivity to the teachings. You’ll remember that in the beginning, with his depression and despondency, he displayed the resistance to guidance that is indicative of tamas guna. So even though he was in trouble and wanted help, he defiantly refused Krishna’s direction and affirmed his self-will with that tenacity and stuckness that’s indicative of tamas guna, or resistance.
Now we can hear a different quality in his questioning, which indicates the arising of sattva guna, or the quality of illumination.
Arjuna’s progression revealed in the transition between Chapter Two and Chapter Three reminds me of what it was like to study with my teacher, to sit with my guru and hear the teachings about the nature of consciousness and living the awakened life. When I was sitting and listening to him, everything was absolutely clear. I even felt in some ways that I was just being reminded of what I already knew. But then as I left the satsang with him or the atmosphere of the impartation of the teachings, I couldn’t remember with clarity how it all fit together, how it was actually going to work.
This is the position that Arjuna is in, in Chapter Three as it begins. Although everything seemed crystal clear by the end of Chapter Two, in the next moment, Arjuna is saying, Wait a minute. I’m not exactly sure now what I’m supposed to do. Should I stop what I’m doing? Should I leave my job and my family and rigorously pursue this path of Self-knowledge? If knowledge is the ultimate way of Self-realization, then what’s the purpose of engaging in action?
Receptivity and Respect Open the Door to Wisdom
Here we find this really important teaching about study of scripture and study with a spiritual teacher—that Arjuna is sincerely asking of Krishna. He’s asking with this attitude of receptivity and respect.
If we really want an answer to our pressing questions, then we need to approach the teacher—and our own inner guru—with respect and a willingness to learn. This is something we can see in the way Arjuna now phrases his questions. He doesn’t accuse Krishna of being wrong. He’s not arguing with him, but he is lifting up his own confusion so that he can learn.
Why Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough for Liberation
The other thing that is familiar to us here is Arjuna’s request for a simple, straightforward plan. Just tell me the one thing that I should do, that I can do, that’s going to bring illumination of consciousness. Just narrow it right down for me so I can get on with it. Of course, we’re all looking for that one thing that will make it simple for us.
It is simple, but perhaps it is not easy. Why? Because knowledge has to be lived—and action is unavoidable. These two have to come together.
The Yoga of Action: Finding Freedom Through Karma Yoga
In verse 3.3, Krishna replies: O blameless one, in this world, a twofold way of life has been taught by me—the path of knowledge for people of contemplation, and that of works for people of action. These two ways are different approaches to the same goal, according to the inclination of the seeker. But the goal remains the same. Spiritually insightful action—skillful action—is a way of purifying the mind to facilitate the highest realization.
In verse 3.4: Not by abstention from work does a person attain freedom from action, nor by mere renunciation does one attain to perfection.
Verse 3.5 reminds us that: No one can remain even for a moment without doing work. Everyone is made to act helplessly by the impulses born of nature.
The True Meaning of Non-Action in Spiritual Life
I want to conclude with a beautiful commentary by S. Radhakrishnan on these verses:
While life remains, action is unavoidable. Thinking is an act, living is an act, and these acts cause many effects. To be free from desire—from the illusion of personal interest—is the true non action and not the physical abstention from activity... When egoism is removed, action springs from the depths and is governed by the supreme secretly seated in the heart.
This is the goal—to be able to live by divine impulse. As Paramahansa Yogananda put it, to be guided by the soul and not by the conditioned responses of the mind, to be free from the sorrow-producing self-will, to see clearly and to love fully.
Listen to the full podcast episode below.
Bhagavad Gita, pt 20: Unveiling the Yoga of Action
Chapter 3 v. 1-5
As Arjuna, the seeking soul, grapples with confusion, we explore the path of knowledge and action on the spiritual journey. Discover how the guidance of Lord Krishna sheds light on the twofold approach to life and liberation. With insights into the interplay between contemplation and active engagement, we uncover the key to skillful action and the true nature of non-action.
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