Summary:

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 31: Moksha requires persistent alignment to Bhagavad Gita's perspective, not dramatic lifestyle shifts like sannyāsa. Śraddhā involves provisional trust and willingness to suspend conclusions, allowing scriptural guidance time to work. Students approach teachers due to unsettling incompleteness despite accomplishments. Vedanta removes false notions rather than producing new knowledge. Advaita teachers must be śrotriya and brahma-niṣṭha. Krishna's teaching encompasses karma-yoga (īśvara arpaṇa and prasāda buddhi) and brahma-vidyā (revealing true nature of self, world, and cause). Liberation occurs through identity shift from doer-enjoyer body-mind to actionless witness-consciousness, instantly disowning sañcita-karma.

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 32: Those without discrimination dismiss teachings while remaining unfulfilled due to unresolved anger (aggressive/passive) and fear (paranoia/overconfidence/cynicism) that prevent assimilation. People create knowledge divisions for safety and belonging. Response depends on nature: sattvic examine life deeper, rajasic use knowledge for pride, tamasic misinterpret teachings and blame teaching/teacher rather than themselves. Developing discrimination through sattvic mind reveals three fundamental wants (exist, know, be fulfilled).

---

Revision:

The Two Modes of Thinking: Discerning vs. Non-Discerning

The speaker begins by defining a karma yogi as an individual with a discerning and discriminating mind. This type of mind has the ability to analyze various factors, conditions, and the context of a situation to determine the most appropriate course of action. It is not reactive but responsive.

In contrast, a non-discriminating mind operates in a binary, black-and-white framework. It defaults to established patterns and is governed by a simple “like or dislike” mechanism. For example, someone avoiding exercise simply because they “don't like it,” even when their body needs it. This binary thinking is comfortable because it requires no deep thought; it's an automatic response based on past behavior and comfort levels. This way of living is limiting, as one may miss out on beneficial challenges and opportunities for growth, never knowing what potential has been lost.

Krishna's Advice: The Path of Inquiry

Instead of defaulting to “I do it or I don't do it,” one should adopt a curious and inquisitive approach. This involves asking a series of questions before acting:

• Why am I doing this?
• What is the ultimate goal or intention?
• What is the bigger picture?
• What is my role in this situation?
• What are the potential consequences of saying yes or no?
• Am I prepared to face unfavorable consequences?

This method shifts the focus from personal comfort to purposeful action.

The Deeper Meaning of Renouncing Actions

How are one's actions to be done? Krishna says, “by renouncing all actions onto me”, another way to say the same thing is, “do without attachment to results.” This concept is explained on two levels:

1. Practical Understanding: We must recognize that the outcomes of our actions are not truly within our control. Becoming obsessed with a specific result consumes the mind, robs us of the freedom to live spontaneously, and prevents us from thinking clearly about the next right action. For example, activists often burn out for this very reason – their well-being becomes so tied to a specific outcome that the process becomes draining and unsustainable. The truth is, one will be okay even if things don't turn out as desired. In short, you may get exactly as wanted, less then, more then, or totally opposite then expected.
2. Metaphysical Understanding: The ultimate question is, “Who is doing the action?”  The body-mind complex is. This instrument, designed by Ishvara, was never “I” to begin with. When we become attached to an outcome, we are identifying the “I” with this limited instrument, reinforcing the ego, or the false idea that you are as good as the body-mind.

Every being is naturally a contributor. However, humans are given the ability to say “no” and allow personal likes and dislikes to override this intended nature. By relinquishing the attachment to outcomes and instead asking what needs to be done for the whole, one purifies the mind. This practice ultimately qualifies a person for moksha, as it shakes up the individual who is desperately trying to hold onto it's individual identity. 

NEXT VERSE: The Karma-yogi who lives like this, eventually gains moksha…

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 31:
Who follows the teaching with faith, gains moksha…

ये मे मतम् इदम् नित्यम् अनुतिष्ठन्ति मानवाः ।
श्रद्धावन्तः अनसूयन्तः मुच्यन्ते ते अपि कर्मभिः ॥ ३-३१॥
ye me matam idam nityam anutiṣṭhanti mānavāḥ ।
śraddhāvantaḥ anasūyantaḥ mucyante te api karmabhiḥ ॥ 3-31॥

Those people who constantly follow this teaching of Mine, full of faith, without finding fault with the teaching or the teacher (asūyā), they too are freed from the hold of the karma-phalas. (They gain mokṣa.)

Purpose of verse:

Verse shows to attain moksha, you don’t need a dramatic lifestyle shift such as becoming sannyāsi, remaining single, renouncing the world. What’s required is persistent alignment to perspective of B.G, rooted in śraddhā (faith) and free from anasūyā (intolerance or fault-finding).

Shraddha in teaching:

Śraddha is a provisional trust in the teaching. It's willingness to suspend your conclusions and allow in the scriptural guidance.

Shraddha is like a seed planted in soil, whose growth you can’t see for some time. Similarly, you’re giving the knowledge time for it to do it’s magic on you.

Shraddha involves having enough openness, because you’re told about an invisible cause which can’t be perceived, unlike an effect.

But if the scriptures can’t show the cause initially, why should you listen?

You decide to listen because already noticed that every accomplishment hasn’t totally satisfied you no matter how intelligent and determined you are.

In fact, every student in Upanishads is intelligent and accomplished. For instance Shaunaka in M.U was a mahāśrama (great accomplished householder). Despite their success, they had the unsettling thorn of incompleteness. Then then student approached a teacher who, in all Upanishadic literature more or less says, “Vedanta starts out by saying, You are the whole, and you have to come to see that for yourself”.

In other words, Vedantic knowledge doesn’t produce anything new (like apara-vidya), but removes a false notion making you convinced your “I” is as good as an individual.

Vedanta throws light on what-is, by showing, (a) what is the world, (b) who are you, (c) what is cause of universe, and (d) your relationship to the cause.

Eventually through the teaching, you come to see Vedantic vision is not contradictable; it’s simply pointing out what you missed out.

For example, suppose you experience happiness, and are convinced that’s the ultimate. Shastra comes in and shows you there’s degrees of happiness (Sattvic, Rajasic, Tamasic). Seeing this, the practitioner realizes his so called “happiness” was impure. Without the scriptural authority, one has no checklist to confirm whether his happiness/liberation/awareness is a distortion, or pure.

As you gain growing clarity and align your perception with that of the scriptures, your emotional life improves, which increases shraddha further.

Shraddha in teacher:

How will you figure out the teacher is living it? Teacher is…

• 1. Shrotriya: has connected the dots, very familiar with the subject matter, is able to relate it to real life, dedicated life to the tradition – just like in any subject matter).
  2. Brahma-nistha: assimilated the vision, lives it, solved the problem through the scriptures.

In teacher's presence, you start to enjoy gradual clarity, transformation, palpable change in thinking. Despite teacher’s freedom, they still live responsibly, living in harmony with the rules of the game.

When listening to a teacher, need to be mindful of transference:

We tend to project onto teacher the feelings we felt towards parents in childhood. This can stifle our learning.

Two forms of narratives come from transference:

1. 1. Teacher likes me. I’m his/her favorite! They are Bhagavan!
   2. Teacher doesn’t like me; which will make you not stay long enough to develop a relationship and allow them to influence you positively.

Student's work is to look into one's beliefs, stories causing you to feel like this. 

Teacher's work is to help student out of transference, by reminding teacher is human, and not taking student's projections personally.

What is anasūyā (Freedom from Fault-Finding)?

Some are in default state of conspiracy, suspicion, resistance. One is actively looking for defects in the teacher and teaching. It comes from prior hurt, or people who let you down. It disallows you from building a meaningful relationships.

Examples:

• 1. I've seen karma-yogīs and they suffer as much as I do.
  2. You’ve been studying the BG for years, and act like anyone else.
  3. You’ve reacted, shown anger, dismissed me – thus you’re all chit-chat, no wisdom.
  4. That teacher isn’t enlightened because __, __, etc.

Thus Krishna says, “Those who consistently follow this teaching, with faith, and freedom to find faults – eventually gain moksha”…

What is Krishna’s teaching? It has two parts:

1. Karma-Yoga:
   1. Meaning your mind goes from “What’s is comfortable?”, to “What is this moment calling for?”. Technically, this is called having Īśvara arpaṇa buddhi — recognizing that all actions are going to the whole; it trains your mind to think big-picture.
   2. You cultivate Īśvara prasāda buddhi, meaning whatever comes to you – success, failure, pleasure, pain, praise, blame – is blessing from omniscient-omnipotent being which makes no mistakes, thus complaining reduces and you don't lose composure when receiving less or opposite of what you want. You start treating situations as perfect growth opportunities.
2. Brahma-vidya: This is the glory of BG that other self-help books lack. It addresses 3 fundamental questions…
   1. Who are you? Self Help books suggest, you’re a tiny being, who has to become big as possible before you die. B.G says Self is immortal, and already limitlessly big, and the only reality.
   2. What is nature of universe? Wisdom books suggest world is real. B.G says world has a dependent reality, it’s not separate from Cause. Thus despite seeing endless effects, you cognitively recognize they’re not separate from One cause.
   3. What is nature of cause of universe? Generally cause is away, thus think Lord is away, or is non-existent. B.G says the cause pervades everything, thus you’re one with it.

And the eventual outcome is, “freed from hold of karma-phalas (gain moksha)”…

How mokṣa makes one instantly free from karma-phalas:

Before knowledge (ajñāna stage): The “I” was mistakenly identified with the body-mind complex (jīva) – that which performs actions and receives consequences.

After knowledge (jñāna): The “I” is known to be the actionless witness-consciousness (sākṣī-caitanya), completely free from the body-mind complex and all its associated activities.

Instant freedom mechanism: Since you now know you were never the doer (kartā) or enjoyer (bhoktā), all karma-phalas belong only to the body-mind, not to your true nature as pure consciousness.

Sañcita-karma account: The infinite storehouse of accumulated karmas waiting to fructify is instantly “disowned” – like discovering the debts belonged to someone else whose identity you mistakenly assumed. EG: Man suffered in prison, genuinely believing he committed a crime. He was on death row. When they discovered evidence he didn’t commit the murder, at once his murder account was dropped. He was a free man.

Prārabdha continues: The body-mind may continue experiencing results of actions already set in motion, but you remain untouched as the witness – like an actor who knows the drama on stage doesn't affect his real identity.

Technical precision: Liberation is not freedom FROM karma-phalas, but freedom from the notion that karma-phalas belong to you, so there was never any real bondage to be removed.

NEXT VERSE:  Those without shraddha, devoid of discrimination – are dismissive of BG teachings and Advaita Vedanta…

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 32:
Those without discrimination, dismiss Vedanta…

ये तु एतत् अभ्यसूयन्तः न अनुतिष्ठन्ति मे मतम् ।
सर्व-ज्ञान-विमूढान् तान् विद्धि नष्टान् अचेतसः ॥ ३-३२॥
ye tu etat abhyasūyantaḥ na anutiṣṭhanti me matam ।
sarva-jñāna-vimūḍhān tān viddhi naṣṭān acetasaḥ ॥ 3-32॥

Whereas those who, being critical of this (teaching) without reason, do not follow my vision, who are deluded in all realms of knowledge, and devoid of discrimination, know them as lost.

“Those who are critical of this teaching, due to lack of discrimination, do not follow my vision”:

Those without shraddha, devoid of discrimination, are dismissive of BG/Advaita teachings. They find their own vision better – all the while lingering sense of “I’m not fulfilled” continues.

Eventually, they come to see their notions lose potency amidst unresolved orientations that continue to bother them.

Two most common unresolved orientations the continue in the minds of these critics are:

1. 1. Anger:
      • Anger comes when you’ve been treated unfairly, or needs aren’t fulfilled. It comes out as either:
        1. Aggressive anger: Shown by raising voice or body stiffness. Or…
        2. Passive anger: Angry person who doesn’t show it. Gets stored as negativity (seeing dark side to everything), sadness. Engages in coping mechanism by putting up a happy face to self-deceive oneself, or controlling the environment to keep anger at bay.
      • In both cases, unreleased anger decides your emotional landscape, how you feel about yourself, how comfortable you are around others. It affects your decisions. 
   2. Fear: Can come up as…
      1. Paranoia: Imagining situation is a threat, even though it’s not.
      2. Over-confidence: Some are in denial of their own fear, thus create a story around it, “I am fearless”. It’s a compensation for the unresolved fear underneath.
      3. Lack of trust, cynicism: Thinking people won’t honour their word. Always on guard, like a stressed-out ninja.

Conclusion: A mind that’s angry and fearful can’t assimilate the vision. It’ll listen, while entertaining thoughts of unfinished business. It’ll deprive you of enjoying simple things, always looking for big hits. Need to take care of the relatively suffering mind first by using present situations to discover blindspots, and change unhelpful stories.

“Those who don’t follow My vision (of BG/Upanishads), are deluded in all realms of knowledge…”

People have a tendency to put themselves into divisions of knowledge, then feel privileged to be in that group. It provides safety and belonging (basic human needs).

Because of this tendency, the verse indirectly brings up a question…

What about those who (a) aren’t in the group of BG/Upanishads, (b) who are into pseudo-spirituality, dvaita schools, (c) not into spirituality at all.

In any case, it depends on person’s nature…

• 1. Sattvic: They want to examine life deeper, with or without B.G. They’ll benefit whatever involved in.
  2. Rajasic: Knowledge or actions becomes a means of pride, worldly accomplishment.  
  3. Tamasic: Teachings are misinterpreted, or don’t stick outside class. Have strong opinions about BG or any spiritual teaching that doesn’t match their views. This category is most problematic and most verbal (especially when backed by rajasic passion), as it causes one to make definitive conclusions about something they don't know about. It causes narrative, “I’m in a good place; the problem lies with the teaching/teacher/tradition”.

As discrimination develops (sattvic mind), one becomes lucid about 3 fundamental truths:  I want to exist. I want to know (can’t stand partial knowing). I want to be fulfilled.  Realizing nothing so far has satisfied all three, the seeker develops enough humility, and becomes qualified for “my vision”.

NEXT VERSE: Reason why people are the way they are is because of their nature…

—

Course was based on Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) home study course.

Recorded 31 Aug, 2025