III: 9

Chapter 3, Verse 9

“Karma binds you
To the material world
Except when actions
Are performed
As worship of God.
Therefore, perform
Every action
Sacramentally,
And be free
From all attachment
To results.”

Swami Shivananda:

“People who do actions as worship of God are not bound. Their hearts are purified by performing actions for the sake of the higher power. Where this spirit of unselfishness does not govern the action, such action binds one to worldliness, however good or glorious the action may be.”

Srila Prabhupada:

“Everything is to be done for the satisfaction of Krishna. This practice will gradually elevate one to transcendental loving service of the Lord, the kingdom of God.”

Sri Aurobindo:

“All works can be done in this spirit. Any action may be done either from the ego-sense, narrow or enlarged, or for the sake of the divine. All the actions of Prakriti exist only for the sake of the divine. From him it proceeds, by him it endures, and to him it is directed. All of life, all of world-existence consists of action offered by nature to the Supreme Purusha, the one and secret soul in nature, in whom all her workings unfold. However, in humans the truth is obscured by our limited personalities. So long as we are dominated by ego-sense, we will be unable to perceive or act in the spirit of this truth; we will be acting, rather, for the satisfactions of the ego and in the spirit of the ego. Egoism is the knot of the bondage. By acting Godwards, without any thought of ego-gratification, we loosen the knot and finally arrive at freedom.”

Paramahansa Yogananda:

“Unconscious people who work in the factory of life with only their selfish desires as tools receive mostly sorrow, just as an untrained mechanic who tries to handle an intricate piece of machinery comes away bloody.”

[A friend has worked on a lot of cars. We were talking once and he asked me, “Do you know what the definition of a successful repair is?”

“No, what?”

“No blood.”]