The Gita in daily life
Knowing what to do and not doing it
I know exactly what I should be doing and I still do not do it. Why does that happen?
I know exactly what I should be doing and I still do not do it. Why does that happen?
Arjuna asks this at 3.36 in almost those words: what is it that drives a man to do wrong even when he does not want to, as though he were pushed into it. Krishna answers without hesitating. It is kama and the anger that comes with it, born of rajas, a fire that is never filled (3.37, 3.39). 3.41 gives the order of work: bring the senses under control first, and then strike at the thing itself. The prescription is not a firmer resolution. It is a smaller foothold, taken first.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · from the Bhagavad Gita
It is worth saying first that this question is in the text and that Arjuna asks it. He is not told that he is imagining the problem. 3.36 is about doing wrong, which is a wider subject than leaving a task undone, so the fit is not exact and should not be forced. But the structure of the complaint is the same one: the knowing is present and the doing is not. And 18.28, listing the marks of a doer the Gita calls tamasic, includes the man who is idle, downcast, and forever putting things off. The condition is named in the text, in plain terms, without any suggestion that it is rare.
3.38 gives three images for what is happening, and they are chosen carefully: fire covered by smoke, a mirror covered by dust, an embryo covered by its membrane. What they share is that nothing has been destroyed. The knowing is still there, under something. That matters for how a person speaks to himself at eleven at night, because the account he usually gives — that he is lazy, that he has no discipline — describes an absence, and the Gita describes a covering. 3.39 adds the part that is hardest to admit: the covering desire is a fire that is never satisfied, so waiting until the wanting settles before starting is waiting for a thing that has no natural end.
The instruction at 3.41 to 3.43 is practical and its order is the whole of it. Bring the senses under control, then strike down the thing that destroys understanding; steady the self by the self. The senses come first because they are the part a person can actually reach. 6.5 puts the same point without images: lift yourself by your own effort and do not let yourself sink, because a man is his own friend and his own enemy. And 18.39 is worth knowing for what it names. The comfort in putting something off is real comfort, and the Gita calls that kind of happiness the sort that deceives at the start and at the end alike.
In the Gita’s own words
Where this comes from.
Bhagavad Gita 3.36Arjuna
अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुषः ।
अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजितः ॥Then what is it, Varshneya, that drives a man to do wrong, even when he does not want to, as though he were forced into it?
The reason this page exists. The question is asked inside the text, by the student, before any teacher thought to put it to a reader.
Bhagavad Gita 3.37Shri Bhagavan
काम एष क्रोध एष रजोगुणसमुद्भवः ।
महाशनो महापाप्मा विद्ध्येनमिह वैरिणम् ॥It is desire, it is anger, born of the guna of rajas. It devours everything and does great harm. Know this to be the enemy here.
The answer, given without qualification: desire and the anger that follows it, born of rajas. Krishna calls it the enemy here, which is a strong word for a habit.
Bhagavad Gita 3.38Shri Bhagavan
धूमेनाव्रियते वह्निर्यथादर्शो मलेन च ।
यथोल्बेनावृतो गर्भस्तथा तेनेदमावृतम् ॥As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, as an embryo is covered by its membrane, so is this covered by desire.
Smoke over fire, dust on a mirror, the membrane over an embryo. In all three the thing is covered and not destroyed, which is the most useful sentence on this page.
Bhagavad Gita 3.41Shri Bhagavan
तस्मात्त्वमिन्द्रियाण्यादौ नियम्य भरतर्षभ ।
पाप्मानं प्रजहि ह्येनं ज्ञानविज्ञाननाशनम् ॥So bring your senses under control first, Bharatarshabha, and then strike down this evil thing, which destroys both knowledge and the deeper understanding that follows it.
The order of operations: bring the senses under control first, and then strike at the thing that destroys understanding. The sequence is the instruction.
Bhagavad Gita 18.28Shri Bhagavan
अयुक्तः प्राकृतः स्तब्धः शठो नैष्कृतिकोऽलसः ।
विषादी दीर्घसूत्री च कर्ता तामस उच्यते ॥Unsteady, coarse, unbending, deceitful, malicious, idle, despondent and forever putting things off — such a doer is called one of darkness.
The Gita names the condition directly: idle, downcast, and forever putting things off. It is describing how work is being done, and chapter 3 assumes that can change.
Bhagavad Gita 18.39Shri Bhagavan
यदग्रे चानुबन्धे च सुखं मोहनमात्मनः ।
निद्रालस्यप्रमादोत्थं तत्तामसमुदाहृतम् ॥The happiness that deludes the self both at its start and in what follows, arising from sleep, indolence and heedlessness — that is called one of darkness.
The happiness that comes of sleep, indolence and heedlessness, and deludes a person at the beginning and after. The relief of postponing is named as real and as deceptive.
Bhagavad Gita 6.5Shri Bhagavan
उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥Lift yourself by your own effort; do not let yourself sink. You are your own friend, and you are your own enemy.
The nearest the Gita comes to addressing a person alone at his desk, and it offers him both descriptions of himself in one line rather than only the unflattering one.
What to actually do
Small, and today.
- Start at the sense door, not at the will. 3.41 puts the senses first, which in practice means putting the thing that catches you out of reach before you sit down, while you still want to.
- Treat the delay as a covering and not as an absence. 3.38 gives dust on a mirror, so begin with the smallest piece of the work you can still see clearly, and let the rest come back into view.
- Do not wait for the wanting to settle before you begin. 3.39 calls it a fire that is never filled, which means the wait has no natural end.
- Speak to yourself as the friend 6.5 says a person can be to himself. Contempt has started nobody, and the verse gives you the other option in the same line.
What the Gita does not say
The standard reading is that this is laziness and the cure is shame. That is not how the Gita answers it. Arjuna asks at 3.36 as a man describing something that pushes him, and Krishna does not reply that he is weak. He names kama, calls it the enemy of the wise, and gives an order of work at 3.41 that begins with the senses rather than with resolve. 18.28 does list putting things off among the marks of a doer of darkness, but the whole of chapter 3 is spent on a remedy, which would make no sense if the condition were permanent.
The words behind this
Common questions
About this.
Does the Gita actually talk about procrastination?
It comes at it twice. 3.36 is Arjuna asking what makes a man act against his own knowledge, as though forced, and 18.28 lists the doer who is idle, downcast and forever putting things off. The first is the better verse for the experience; the second shows the condition being named plainly rather than treated as a modern complaint.
Why does Krishna blame desire for something that feels like laziness?
Because of what desire does to attention rather than to energy. 3.39 calls it a fire that is never filled and 3.40 says it sits in the senses, the mind and the intellect. A person avoiding a task is usually not doing nothing; he is doing something easier that the wanting has made attractive. On that reading the two are the same condition.
What do I actually do first?
3.41 answers in order: the senses first, then the thing itself. That is unusually concrete for the Gita. It means arranging what is within reach before relying on resolve, and it implies that a plan which depends entirely on willpower has been built in the wrong order.
Is it a sin to waste time?
The Gita does not talk in those terms here. 18.39 calls the happiness that comes of sleep, indolence and heedlessness deluding at the start and after, which is a description of a cost rather than a charge laid against a person. And 6.5 says the same man is his own friend and his own enemy, which leaves the question open rather than settled.