Knowledge and Action

Abstract

The third chapter of Bhagavad Gita opens with this question of Arjuna, "If in your opinion, O Janardana, knowledge is superior to action, why then, O Kesava, do you engage me in this terrible action?" If knowledge is superior to action, if knowledge alone is going to deliver the goods as far as attainment of tireyas or the limitless is concerned, why are you asking me to perform action? And the action, I am asked to perform, is not an ordinary action; it is a terrible action, the action in the battlefield involving a great deal of destruction and suffering.