Not doing what one ought to do. 'Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction.' What does 'action is better than inaction' mean? Now ask the saints. What does 'action is better than inaction' mean? What, brother? Let me explain it to you. Devotion to duty is better than singing praises. Devotion to duty is better than just singing praises or scratching around. Action is better than inaction. But there, God said that Karma Karma Action. Deed. Any thought, word, or deed that will sooner or later reap its consequences. Karmas of a person are linked to their rewards (cause and effect). Bhagvãn is the giver of the rewards of the karmas; good deeds reap pleasant rewards, and bad deeds reap painful fruits. Karmas remain with a jeev until it has received its rewards. Tap to open in glossary → Karma Karma Action. Deed. Any thought, word, or deed that will sooner or later reap its consequences. Karmas of a person are linked to their rewards (cause and effect). Bhagvãn is the giver of the rewards of the karmas; good deeds reap pleasant rewards, and bad deeds reap painful fruits. Karmas remain with a jeev until it has received its rewards. Tap to open in glossary → But what is called Karma Karma Action. Deed. Any thought, word, or deed that will sooner or later reap its consequences. Karmas of a person are linked to their rewards (cause and effect). Bhagvãn is the giver of the rewards of the karmas; good deeds reap pleasant rewards, and bad deeds reap painful fruits. Karmas remain with a jeev until it has received its rewards. Tap to open in glossary → Should we call what we all arrange Karma Karma Action. Deed. Any thought, word, or deed that will sooner or later reap its consequences. Karmas of a person are linked to their rewards (cause and effect). Bhagvãn is the giver of the rewards of the karmas; good deeds reap pleasant rewards, and bad deeds reap painful fruits. Karmas remain with a jeev until it has received its rewards. Tap to open in glossary → Karma Karma Action. Deed. Any thought, word, or deed that will sooner or later reap its consequences. Karmas of a person are linked to their rewards (cause and effect). Bhagvãn is the giver of the rewards of the karmas; good deeds reap pleasant rewards, and bad deeds reap painful fruits. Karmas remain with a jeev until it has received its rewards. Tap to open in glossary → 'I am doing selfless service.' What is called selfless service? One should ask the Gita or ask the Vachanamrut. We arrange it ourselves, thinking, 'What I am doing is exactly right.' It is not like that. When, relying on the strength of God's refuge, one does not perform one's prescribed duty or prescribed spiritual practice, that too is a form of body-consciousness. It is more dangerous. One should perform duty according to the scriptures. Taking initiatives on our own is called body-consciousness. Initiatives should be taken according to the scriptures. Perform selfless service as prescribed in the Gita. If it is prescribed in the Vachanamrut, perform selfless service accordingly. Perform devotion as prescribed in the Bhaktinidhi. Then it is considered correct. Then God takes care of him. Seeing our devotion to duty, God takes care of us. If He does not see devotion to duty, if it is not there, how can God take care of him? Does God protect only such people? Do I want to do that workshop? What kind of buses come to the workshop? Punctured ones and all such come. So if only such people gather before God, what should God understand? When, relying on the strength of God's refuge, one does not perform one's prescribed duty or prescribed spiritual practice, that too is a form of body-consciousness. It is more dangerous. It is not easily detected by a seeker. Therefore, here One who simply does not perform duty, and one who does not perform duty under the pretext of God's refuge, what is the difference between the two? That is recognized by everyone. That is also body-consciousness. The other one was also said to have body-consciousness, right? But what is the difference between these two types of body-consciousness? Those who do not perform duty under the pretext of God's refuge are considered valid in society. It is considered valid. He wants to prove that he wants to keep his body-consciousness as it is. That is, one who is body-conscious under the pretext of God's refuge and does not perform duty, his body-consciousness does not decrease. And the other one's body-consciousness, body-consciousness without refuge, is pointed out by everyone. 'Hey, you are not doing this.' What is a refugee of God supposed to do? He opposes. So his body-consciousness does not go away, it does not decrease. He uses God's refuge for protection. That is, he misuses it. Maharaj has said, under the cover of God's glory, on the contrary, he does not fear committing sins. From such glory, God runs away. When, relying on the strength of God's refuge, one does not perform one's prescribed duty or prescribed spiritual practice, that too is a form of body-consciousness. It is more dangerous. It is not easily detected by a seeker. Therefore, here God says to Arjuna, 'Fight.' Perform your duty. I have already performed My duty first and ordained the death of all these. Also, the destroyer of the inner and outer enemies of a true seeker is the Supreme Lord. The seeker does not have to worry about that. He has to remain devoted to the Supreme Lord Arjuna, looking at his own strength, was afraid, 'How can I fight against Bhishma? How can I fight against Dronacharya? And if I fight, will I win or what?' So the inner enemies are just like Bhishma and Drona. They are all so terrible. Bhishma and Drona were not like that, but they are so powerful in Arjuna's view. Karna and all of them. 'How can I fight against them?' So God said, 'They are already slain by Me.' 'Fight, and you shall be victorious.' He had attachment, attachment to his family. That is called attachment to duty, not devotion to duty. And God awakened devotion to duty in Arjuna. From God's perspective. These were all the reasons for failing in duty. That 'my relatives, my grandfather, my guru guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → Under the pretext of devotion to duty, those who are body-conscious make very good excuses so that no one can argue against them. They present their reason in such a way, 'I am doing this in this situation,' that we have to say, 'No, no, in this situation you should do exactly this, nothing else should be done.' They want to be told exactly that. And body-conscious people are very prepared for all such arguments. Prepared. That is their job, to protect body-consciousness. If they did not know how to argue, who would let them keep their body-consciousness? No one would. They are clever in arguments. What did he say? Evader. Responsibility evader. That is, he is very clever in avoiding anything. Not clever in taking responsibility. If there is a challenge, he takes it upon himself, 'Come on, brother, let others...' As Santosh Nair says, 'Brother, from the beginning, I was always a challenger.' If someone asks, 'Who will bring two hundred?' 'I will bring four hundred.' 'Who will do it in five hours?' 'I will do it in three hours.' Challengers and evaders, those two are different. So mostly evaders gather. We AI translation of the Gujarati transcript above, produced in the same pass that transcribed the audio, one English segment per Gujarati segment. Devotional and technical terms with no precise English equivalent (kirtan, satsang, vasana, samskara, and similar) are kept as their plain transliteration rather than force-translated. Not human-proofread., AI-translated, unverified · Source details