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GĪTĀ, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CHAP. III 935
अर्जुन उवाच । ६ अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुषः।
अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजितः ॥ ३६॥ There is a Gujarati proverb in vogue which has the same meaning namely, "Jenām Icāma tenāthi thāya 1 bijo kare to goihāṁ khūya". Anybody will admit that, even where the four-caste arrangement is not in vogue, it is in the best interests of everybody, that the man who has spent the whole of his life in the army should, when the occasion arises, do the business of a fighting-soldier, rather than that of a tailor; and the same argument applies to the fourcaste arrangement The question whether the four-caste arrangement is good or bad, is a different question altogether, and does not arise here. It is an unquestionable fact that other forms of activity are as necessary for the proper maintenance and protection of society as agriculture or other similarly harmless and gentle occupations. This stanza means that whatever occupation one may have once adopted, whether according to the four-caste arrangement. or of one's own free will, it becomes one's ' religion', and it is not proper to find fault with it when occasion arises and to forsake one's duty; and if necessary, one must die in the performance of one's own duty in life. Whatever occupation is considered, some fault or other can certainly be found with it (Gi. 18. 48). But it is not proper that one should, on that account, give up one's prescribed (niyata) duty. This very principle has been enunciated in the Brāhmana-Hunter dialogue and TuladhāraJājali dialogue in the Mahābhārata; and the first half of the 35th stanza is to be found in the Manu-Smrti (Manu. 10. 97), and also later on again in the Gitā (18. 47). With reference to the statement, "one cannot carry out one's determination to kill the senses" in the 33rd stanza, Arjuna now asks why that should be so, and why a man is pulled towards evil deeds, against his will ]
Arjuna said : (36) O Vārşņeya ! (that is, o Śrī Krsņa) now tell me by what inspiration does a man commit sin, not
