Arjuna asks
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 3.1“…why then do you urge me to engage in this terrible deed?”
Praśna No. 6
Kṛṣṇa answers
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 3.8“…for action is superior to non-action.”
Without action, you can't even keep your body alive.
If knowledge is higher than action, Arjuna asks, why act at all? Kṛṣṇa’s reply is practical before it is philosophical: do your work, because action is better than inaction, and without it you could not even keep your body going.
Ask the Gītā your own question.
Arjuna asked his. Samvāda answers yours with the Gītā's own verses.
Samvāda is software, an AI companion tuned to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is not a person. It answers from the verse and shows you which one, and it never pretends to be Kṛṣṇa.
The verses
Arjuna asks
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 3.1अर्जुन उवाच
ज्यायसी चेत्कर्मणस्ते मता बुद्धिर्जनार्दन।
तत्किं कर्मणि घोरे मां नियोजयसि केशव।।
arjuna uvāca jyāyasī cet karmaṇas te matā buddhir janārdana tat kiṁ karmaṇi ghore māṁ niyojayasi keśava
Arjuna said, "O Krsna, if you deem knowledge to be superior to action, why then do you urge me to engage in this terrible deed?"
Kṛṣṇa answers
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 3.8नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः।
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः।।
niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hyakarmaṇaḥ śarīra-yātrāpi ca te na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ
You must perform your obligatory action; for action is superior to non-action (Jñāna Yoga). For a person following non-action, not even the sustenance of the body is possible.
The count
3.1 is verse 120 of 700, and verse 1 of 43 in chapter 3.
Arjuna asks at 3.1 and Kṛṣṇa answers at 3.8, 7 verses apart.
Chapter 3 has 43 verses. Speakers: Kṛṣṇa 40, Arjuna 3.
Counted by Vāṇi on the 700-verse text at getvani.app/gita.
Going deeper
Chapter 3 begins with a puzzle. Chapter 2 ended at 2.72, describing the settled state in which no one is deluded. So in 3.1 Arjuna asks: if you think knowledge is better than action, why do you urge me into this terrible deed? In 3.2 he adds that Kṛṣṇa's words seem to confuse his mind, and asks for the one sure way. Kṛṣṇa's answer comes in stages. By 3.7 he says that whoever controls the senses with the mind and begins karma yoga, free from attachment, does well. Then 3.8 is the practical core: do the work that is yours, because action is better than inaction, and a person who does nothing cannot even keep the body going. 3.9 adds that work should be done as an offering and without attachment. Chapter 3 develops the idea, and what the Gītā says about karma collects related verses.