The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

The Bhagavad Gita ╯
ization is not some kind of compensation for good deeds. We
can understand the dynamics if we remember that the Gita’s
emphasis is on the mind. Most human activity, good and bad,
is tainted by ego-involvement. Such activity cannot purify
consciousness, because it goes on generating new karma in
the mind – in practical terms, we go on getting entangled
in what we do. Selfless work purifies consciousness because
when there is no trace of ego involvement, new karma is not
produced; the mind is simply working out the karma it has
already accumulated.
Shankara illustrates this with the simile of a potter’s wheel.
The ego’s job is to go on incessantly spinning the wheel of
the mind and making karma-pots: new ideas to act on, fresh
desires to pursue. When this pointless activity stops, no more
pots are made, but for a while the wheel of the mind goes on
spinning out of the momentum of its past karma. This is an
anguishing period in the life of every mystic: you have done
everything you can; now you can only wait with a kind of
impatient patience. Eventually, for no reason that one can
understand, the wheel does come to a stop, dissolving the
mind-process in samadhi.
A HIGHER IMAGE
Perhaps the clearest way to grasp the Gita is to
look at the way it describes those who embody its teachings.
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