Chapter 3 Karma Yoga Verse 17
Sloka
Utseedeyur ime lokaa na kuryaam karma ched aham;
Sankarasya cha kartaa syaam upahanyaam imaah prajaah.
Translation
These worlds would perish if I did not perform action;
I should be the author of confusion of castes and destruction of these being
Interpretation
Lord Krishna after telling that even He performs action, though it is not needed goes on to tell Arjuna the reason for Him performing actions. Lord Krishna says that if He does not perform the actions, then the whole world will perish. He raises the curiosity in the mind of Arjuna as to what actions the Lord performs and why the world will perish if he doesnt perform those actions. Finally He also tells Arjuna that He is the one who creates confusions and doubts in the minds of people. Those confusions will help in the destruction of many of the beings that exist in this World.
Extending the Interpretation to Mankind’s Life!
The big question is, what action does God perform? To get the answers for it, look at your lives. Why do you get troubles, why do you get confusions, why there is so much conflict in your life. We all feel that its all fate, bad luck and time which are responsible for it. But very few people know that these are the tests that God keeps for us. He gives us lot of practical situations and expects us to solve the problems from whatever we have learnt in many years. But the question is, why does God keeps us these tests?
Everyone of us is a creation of God. He teaches us many things, helps us to learn life. But how do we know that we have learnt and mastered many things? We can know them only when we face the situations. So, what God does is, He creates situations for us and puts many people to tests. If we have the abilities to overcome these tests and emerge victorious. We shouldn’t feel bad for not getting victorious because attempting something with full commitment is also equal to performing action. That would be followed by a reward that God only gives us. Those of us, who dont take God’s lessons seriously and don’t put efforts in the test given by Him, fail in those tests. Failure leads to confusions and even leads the questioning of God’s existence. This leads to the destruction of his character and total failure on his part.
