Bhagavad Gītā Chapter III — Virtue in Work (Karma-Yog)

N=1 distillation. Source: Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885), Gutenberg #2388. Quotes pending Phase 7. Tags: ../00-methodology.md. Citation Gītā 3.

Chapter role

Answers Arjuna's question — if knowledge is higher, why act at all? Krishna: action is unavoidable ("none shall 'scape from act / By shunning action"); the path is selfless action offered as sacrifice (yajña) for the world's upholding (lokasaṃgraha), and the great must act to set an example. The chapter ends naming desire (kāma) as "man's enemy."

Atomic statements

G3-C1: No one can refrain from action even for a moment; nature compels everyone to act. (FOUNDATIONAL / KARMA-SAMSARA)

Gītā 3: "No man shall 'scape from act / By shunning action… no jot of time, at any time, / Rests any actionless; his nature's law / Compels him, even unwilling, into act."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

G3-C2: Suppressing the body while dwelling on sense-objects in the mind is hypocrisy; better to act with the body while keeping the mind unattached. (OPERATIONAL / YOGA-PATHS+DESIRE)

Gītā 3: "He who sits / Suppressing all the instruments of flesh, / Yet in his idle heart thinking on them, / Plays the inept and guilty hypocrite…"
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

G3-C3: Work done as sacrifice, not for self, frees one; work done only for oneself is sin. The world's wheels turn by mutual sacrifice. (FOUNDATIONAL / DHARMA+YOGA-PATHS)

Gītā 3: "Who eat of food after their sacrifice / Are quit of fault, but they that spread a feast / All for themselves, eat sin and drink of sin." / "He that abstains / To help the rolling wheels of this great world… lives a lost life…"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

G3-C4: The wise should act — without attachment — for the upholding of the world and to set the example others follow (lokasaṃgraha). Krishna himself acts though he needs nothing. (FOUNDATIONAL / DHARMA)

Gītā 3: "for the upholding of thy kind, / Action thou should'st embrace. What the wise choose / The unwise people take…" / "Yet I act here! and, if I acted not… those that look to me / For guidance… would decline from good…"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

G3-C5: Better to do one's own duty (sva-dharma) imperfectly than another's well; to die in one's own duty is no ill. (OPERATIONAL / DHARMA)

Gītā 3: "this is better, that one do / His own task as he may, even though he fail, / Than take tasks not his own, though they seem good. / To die performing duty is no ill…"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

G3-C6: Desire (kāma) and passion, born of rajas, are the insatiable enemy that veils wisdom as smoke veils fire; govern the heart and slay it. (FOUNDATIONAL / DESIRE)

Gītā 3: "Kama it is! / Passion it is! born of the Darknesses, / Which pusheth him. Mighty of appetite, / Sinful, and strong is this!—man's enemy! / As smoke blots the white fire… so is the world of things / Foiled, soiled, enclosed in this desire of flesh."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Step 4 — Clusters

Cluster	Atomic statements	Intent
Action is inescapable	C1, C2	One cannot opt out of acting; only out of attachment
Action as sacrifice & service	C3, C4, C5	Selfless work upholds the world; do your own duty
Desire is the enemy	C6	Kāma is the root obstacle to be conquered

Step 5 — Internal tensions

None genuine; this chapter answers Ch.2's apparent action-vs-renunciation tension by defining renunciation as renunciation of attachment, not of work.

Step 6 — Synthesized chapter principles

G3-P1: Action is unavoidable — purify it, don't flee it

No one can be actionless; the path is not abstention but acting without attachment. Suppressing the body while craving in the mind is hypocrisy.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: KARMA-SAMSARA+YOGA-PATHS · Covers: C1, C2 · Evidence: Gītā 3

G3-P2: Selfless action as sacrifice upholds the world (lokasaṃgraha)

Work offered as sacrifice and service liberates; work for self alone binds. The wise act — though needing nothing — to sustain the social-cosmic order and to set an example.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: DHARMA+YOGA-PATHS · Covers: C3, C4 · Evidence: Gītā 3

G3-P3: Do your own duty (sva-dharma)

Better one's own duty done imperfectly than another's done well; integrity of role outweighs apparent success.

Tier: OPERATIONAL · Domain: DHARMA · Covers: C5 · Evidence: Gītā 3

G3-P4: Desire (kāma) is the enemy of wisdom

Craving, born of passion (rajas), is insatiable and veils discernment; it must be governed and conquered at its seat in the senses, mind, and reason.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: DESIRE · Covers: C6 · Evidence: Gītā 3 · Untranslatable: kāma, rajas

Step 7 — Traceability

Principle	Atomic statements	Citation
G3-P1	C1, C2	Gītā 3
G3-P2	C3, C4	Gītā 3
G3-P3	C5	Gītā 3
G3-P4	C6	Gītā 3

Step 8 — Quality

Coverage: high. Orphaned: <10%. Principles: 4. Traceability: 100%.

Step 9 — Validation

Claim-vs-warrant: G3-P1 (one cannot escape acting; act without attachment), G3-P2 (selfless service over self-seeking), and G3-P4 (desire as the enemy of wisdom) read as widely intelligible ethical claims and converge broadly with service-and-self-mastery traditions. G3-P3 (sva-dharma) carries a frame-specific warrant: in the text, "one's own duty" is bound up with the varṇa (caste) order; the claim (integrity to one's calling) is portable, but the warrant (duty fixed by birth-station) is contested even within modern Hinduism and is flagged. Lokasaṃgraha (acting for the world's upholding) is a strong convergence candidate with stewardship/common-good principles.