The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

notes ╯
the word deva, “god.” Daivam is sometimes translated as “fate,”
but this is inappropriate in the Gita, which is not at all fatalistic.
The Gita does, however, allow a place for God’s will or Providence
in the affairs of humankind – though of course the dominant
force is usually karma, not daivam.
34 This verse uses the phrase dharma-kama-artha, “duty, pleasure,
and wealth,” traditionally considered the three goals of ordinary
human life. The fourth and highest goal is moksha, salvation.
The rajasic personality, as this verse points out, pursues the first
three worldly goals; moksha is ignored.
41 The Vedas establish the fourfold division of society into the
classes of brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, and shudra – roughly
priests and intellectuals; warriors and rulers; businessmen,
farmers, and craftsmen; and workers and servants.
66 Dharma is not used here in the usual sense of law or inner
nature, but in a rarer meaning: a thing’s attribute, condition, or
conditioning. Usually dharma is used in this sense only in the
plural, as here: thus dharma is divine law; dharmas are the innumerable
beings, things, emotions and mental states that make
up everyday existence as we experience it. Here, following the
root meaning ( dhri, to support or hold up), sarva-dharman is
translated as “all your supports,” in the sense of external props,
conditioned dependencies. Another translation would be: “Cast
off your dependency on everything external, Arjuna, and rely
on the Self alone.”
275 ╯