BG3.32

We are at Uthamarkoil Kshetram where Sri Poornavalli Thayar graces the devotees along with the Lord Sri Purushotaman. The word poornam in Her name suggests She will bless the devotees totally. She blessed Brahma and Shiva completely. It is said that the Lord's one eye is like the Sun burning bad people like the demons and another eye is like the Moon blessing the devotees. We may be doubting which eye of the Lord is going to see us. But the Thayar's both eyes are like the Moon with cool grace and so when we stand before Her here, not only we will be blessed in spite of our bad qualities but She will convert our such qualities to good ones and get the blessings of the Lord also. We have so far seen that as the Prime mover the Lord induces the three gunas to act on our karma and so it would be beneficial to surrender unto Him and dedicate all our actions at the feet of the Lord. From the 33rd sloka onwards Sri Krishna is going to tell the difficulties in following Gyana yoga. When we want to divert a person from his current path, which is wrong to a right path, we have to tell the impediments of the path he is following and all the advantages of the new path he has to divert. Alwars do the same by praising the qualities of the Lord and at the same time mention all the drawbacks of our worldly things so that we will cling to His feet. Similarly, Sri Krishna told all the greatness of Karma yoga till now. He starts to sermon the drawbacks of practicing Gyana yoga now. The 33rd sloka is:


sadrsam cestate svasyahprakriter jnanavan apiprakritim yanti bhutaninigrahah kim karishyati
"Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three qualities. What can mere laws enactment accomplish?"


Here Sri Krishna tells that mere enactments of laws can not reform anyone unless his mind accepts the laws and makes him to follow. Arjuna does not want to follow Karma yoga as it means he has to fight in the war which is his dharma. He thinks it is better to abandon fight and go to a forest and meditate and practice Gyana yoga. Jnanavan api= Even learned persons in spite of good knowledge [like Janaka capable of practicing Gyana yoga], cestathe =will act, according to nature. We have had many births and we are accustomed to certain actions and so this will become our nature. Prakriti = nature or vasanai. Vasanai means scent. When a flower is kept for sometime and then removed, the scent still lingers. We have been doing some actions in all our births like eating by mouth or seeing by eyes, etc. These have not changed in any birth. So in our multitudes of births we have not changed our habits of rising children or eating, etc. These actions do not disappear and so we are accustomed to these karma. Bhutani = all living beings, follow prakriti. What is the use in mere laws for them? Kim karishyati = what are they [the laws] are going to do? Sri Krishna tells that it would be against nature for Arjuna to follow Gyana yoga against the natural Karma yoga with which he has been associated over many births.