19. The soul, being a tiny part of God who is an ocean of bliss, naturally seeks bliss for itself. However, covered by the material energy, the soul mistakenly identifies itself with the material body. In this ignorance, it performs actions to attain bliss from the world of matter. Since these actions are motivated by the desire for sensual and mental enjoyment, they bind the soul in karmic reactions.
In contrast, when the soul is illumined with divine knowledge, it realizes that the bliss it seeks will be attained not from the objects of the senses, but in loving service to God. It then strives to perform every action for the pleasure of God. "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as oblation to the sacred fire, whatever you bestow as a gift, and whatever austerities you perform, O son of Kunti, do them as an offering to me." (Bhagavad Gita ) Since such an enlightened soul renounces selfish actions for material pleasures and dedicates all actions to God, the works performed produce no karmic reactions. They are said to be burnt in the fire of divine knowledge.
20. Actions cannot be classified by external appearances. It is the state of the mind that determines what is inaction and action. The minds of enlightened persons are absorbed in God. Being fully satisfied in devotional union with him, they look upon God as their only refuge and do not depend upon external supports. In this state of mind, all their actions are termed as akarm, or inactions.
There is a beautiful story in the Puranas to illustrate this point. The gopīs (cowherd women) of Vrindavan once kept a fast. The ceremony of breaking the fast required them to feed a sage. Shree Krishna advised them to feed Sage Durvasa, the elevated ascetic, who lived on the other side of River Yamuna. The gopīs prepared a delicious feast and started off, but found the river was very turbulent that day, and no boatman was willing to ferry them across.
The gopīs asked Shree Krishna for a solution. He said, "Tell River Yamuna that if Shree Krishna is an akhaṇḍ brahmacharī (perfectly celibate since birth), it should give them way." The gopīs started laughing, because they felt that Shree Krishna used to dote upon them, and so there was no question of his being an akhaṇḍ brahmacharī. Nevertheless, when they requested River Yamuna in that manner, the river gave them way and a bridge of flowers manifested for their passage across.
The gopīs were astonished. They went across to the āśhram of Sage Durvasa. They requested him to accept the delicious meal they had brought for him. Being an ascetic, he ate only a small portion, which disappointed the gopīs. So, Durvasa decided to fulfill their expectations, and using his mystic powers, he ate everything they had brought. The gopīs were amazed to see him eat so much, but were very pleased that he had done justice to their cooking.
The gopīs now asked Durvasa for help to cross the Yamuna and return to the other side. He replied, "Tell River Yamuna that if Durvasa has not eaten anything today except doob (a kind of grass which was the only thing Durvasa used to eat), the river should give way." The gopīs again started laughing, for they had seen him eat such an extravagant meal. Yet to their utmost surprise, when they beseeched River Yamuna in that manner, the river again gave them way.
The gopīs asked Shree Krishna the secret behind what had happened. He explained that while God and the Saints appear to engage in material activities externally, internally they are always transcendentally situated. Thus, even while doing all kinds of actions, they are still considered to be non-doers. Although interacting with the gopīs externally, Shree Krishna was an akhaṇḍ brahmacharī internally. And though Durvasa ate the delectable meal offered by the gopīs, internally his mind only tasted the doob grass. Both these were illustrations of inaction in action.
21.
Even according to worldly law, acts of violence that happen accidentally are not considered as punishable offences. If one is driving a car in the correct lane, at the correct speed, with eyes fixed ahead, and someone suddenly comes and falls in front of the car and dies as a result, the court of law will not consider it as a culpable offence, provided it can be proved that the person had no intention to maim or kill. It is the intention of the mind that is of primary importance, and not the action. Similarly, the mystics who work in divine consciousness are released from all sins, because their mind is free from attachment and proprietorship, and their every act is performed with the divine intention of pleasing God.
22. Just like there are two sides to a coin, so too God created this world full of dualities—there is day and night, sweet and sour, hot and cold, rain and drought, etc. The same rose bush has a beautiful flower and also an ugly thorn. Life too brings its share of dualities—happiness and distress, victory and defeat, fame and notoriety. Lord Ram himself, in his divine pastimes, was exiled to the forest the day before he was to be crowned as the king of Ayodhya.
While living in this world, nobody can hope to neutralize the dualities to have only positive experiences. Then how can we successfully deal with the dualities that come our way in life? The solution is to take these dualities in stride, by learning to rise above them in equipoise in all situations. This happens when we develop detachment to the fruits of our actions, concerning ourselves merely with doing our duty in life without yearning for the results. When we perform works for the pleasure of God, we see both positive and negative fruits of those works as the will of God, and joyfully accept both.
23. In this verse, Lord Krishna summarizes the conclusion of the previous five verses. Dedication of all one's actions to God results from the understanding that the soul is eternal servitor of God. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said: jīvera svarūpa haya kṛiṣhṇera nitya-dāsa (Chaitanya Charitāmṛit, Madhya Leela, ) "The soul is by nature the servant of God." Those who are established in this knowledge perform all their actions as an offering to him and are released from the sinful reactions of their work.
What is the kind of vision that such souls develop? Shree Krishna explains this in the next verse.
24. Factually, the objects of the world are made from Maya, the material energy of God. Energy is both one with its energetic and also different from it. For example, light is the energy of fire. It can be considered as different from the fire, because it exists outside it. But it can also be reckoned as a part of the fire itself. Hence, when the rays of the sun enter the room through a window, people say, "The sun has come." Here, they are bundling the sunrays with the sun. The energy is both distinct from the energetic and yet a part of it.
The soul too is the energy of God—it is a spiritual energy, called jīva śhakti. Shree Krishna states this in verses Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stated:
"Lord Krishna is the energetic and the soul is his energy. This has been stated in Bhagavad Gita, Viṣhṇu Purāṇ, etc." Thus, the soul is also simultaneously one with and different from God. Hence, those whose minds are fully absorbed in God-consciousness see the whole world in its unity with God as non-different from him. The Śhrīmad Bhāgavatam states:
"One who sees God everywhere and in all beings is the highest spiritualist." For such advanced spiritualists whose minds are completely absorbed in God-consciousness, the person making the sacrifice, the object of the sacrifice, the instruments of the sacrifice, the sacrificial fire, and the act of sacrifice, are all perceived as non-different from God.
Having explained the spirit in which sacrifice is to be done, Lord Krishna now relates the different kinds of sacrifice people perform in this world for purification.