Arjuna is a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Just imagine, he's talking personally with Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa is personally helping him. How much exalted he is. But still, Kṛṣṇa is advising to work. Kṛṣṇa never said: "Oh, Arjuna, you need not fight. You sit down silently. I shall . . ." Actually, He was doing everything. At last He said, nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savyasācin (BG 11.33): "You are simply instrumental. I am doing everything." So Kṛṣṇa does for the devotee everything, but it does not mean that he will sit down. It is not. This is not our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that idle, creating some idlement. You must work for Kṛṣṇa's sake. That is the program. Not for sense gratification. That is called dharma.
Here it is said, dharmasya hy āpavargyasya. Hy āpavargyasya. Apavarga. This pavarga I have explained several times. In Sanskrit grammar there are vargas, ka-varga, ca-varga, ṭa-varga, ta-varga, pa-varga—five vargas. So pa-varga means pa, pha, ba, bha, ma, five letters. Pa means pariśrama, hard labor. And pha means foaming. Because when you work very hard, from your mouth some foam comes out. Sometimes we see in the body of the horse, or any animal. Pa, pha, ba. Ba means vyarthatā, frustration. Instead of . . . in spite of working very hard, there is frustration in this material world. Pa, pha, ba, bha. Bha means bhaya, fearfulness. Although I am working very hard, still, I am fearful what will happen. I am not sure that things will be done properly, in spite of my working very hard. Pa, pha, ba, bha and ma. Ma means mṛtyu, death. Working so hard, day and night, and still there is death.
Working so hard . . . the scientific world is working so hard, but the scientist is dying himself. He cannot stop death. He can create some atom bomb to kill, but he cannot create anything which will stop death. That is not possible. Therefore, this pa, pha, ba, bha, ma, these five letters, represent five kinds of our activities in this material world. So apavarga, dharmasya hy āpavargyasya: to make it nullified—no more hard labor, no more frustration, no more fearfulness, no more death. That is real problem.
So to become religious, dharmic, means how to nullify these five principles of material existence. In the material world you have to work very, very hard. You cannot think that, "Oh, I am so great man. I'll not work." Na hi suptasya siṁhasya praviśanti mukhe mṛgāḥ. Suppose the lion . . . lion is supposed to be the king of the forest. Still, he has to work. It is not that a lion will sleep, and some animal will come, "My dear lion, please open your mouth. I shall enter." (laughter) That is not possible. Even he is most powerful, even if he is . . . just like your President. He is most powerful man, but he's working hard, more than asses and hogs, to get the post of presidency.