नियतं कà¥à¤°à¥ करà¥à¤® तà¥à¤µà¤‚ करà¥à¤® जà¥à¤¯à¤¾à¤¯à¥‹ हà¥à¤¯à¤•à¤°à¥à¤®à¤£à¤ƒ ।
शरीरयातà¥à¤°à¤¾à¤ªà¤¿ च ते न पà¥à¤°à¤¸à¤¿à¤¦à¥à¤§à¥à¤¯à¥‡à¤¦à¤•à¤°à¥à¤®à¤£à¤ƒ ॥८॥

niyataá¹ kuru karma tvaá¹
karma jyÄyo hy akarmaṇaḥ
Å›arÄ«ra-yÄtrÄpi ca te
na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ

4 times this text was mentioned in purports to other texts: LBG(3) , TQK(1)

 niyatam - prescribed; kuru - do; karma - duties; tvam - you; karma - work; jyÄyaḥ - better; hi - certainly; akarmaṇaḥ - than no work; Å›arÄ«ra - bodily; yÄtrÄ - maintenance; api - even; ca - also; te - your; na - never; prasiddhyet - is effected; akarmaṇaḥ - without work.


Text

Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work.

Purport

There are many pseudo meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacriï¬ced everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Kṛṣṇa did not want Arjuna to become a pretender. Rather, the Lord desired that Arjuna perform his prescribed duties as set forth for ká¹£atriyas. Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder ká¹£atriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the heart of a mundane man and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one’s body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without puriï¬cation of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratiï¬cation. Such polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist, renouncing work and living at the cost of others.