Why does Srila Prabhupada translate karma-yoga as “devotional service”?

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Why does Sri Prabhupada translate Karma Yoga As devotional service As in 5.2 Later on in 12.1, Bhakti Yoga is also translated As devotional service There is also the understanding that the Karma, Gyan and Bhakti paths Are separate in terms of Both the Sadhana and the Sadhya So how can this be understood in the context Of Sri Prabhupada’s translation of both Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga as devotional service Answer The various Vedic paths Can be seen differently Depending on The elevation And the motivation Of the person looking at these paths So Those who are Not generally connected with the Vedic Tradition And study More from the academic point of view Look at The Vedic tradition As having emerged Historically at different times By the Inspiration Or imagination of different people And they look at Bhagavad Gita As an Attempt By some Unknown sage Who used Krishna As a poetical device To Integrate these various different Paths That came up at different times This Understanding is at radical variance From the Vedic Traditional understanding That the Vedas Are Divine revelations And The single Purpose that underlies And unifies all Vedic literature Is a cardinal Principle That has been Accepted by Most traditional scholars By all the great Vaishnav Acharyas So as devotees We need to take into Account The modern scholarly Opinion Wherever we have to deal with it But at the same time we need to focus primarily On The devotional understanding given by the Acharyas So At one level We can say that Karma Yoga, Gyana Yoga, Dhyana Yoga are different paths With different goals But it would be more accurate to say That they are They are differing Aspects of the same path Leading to differing aspects of the same goal So the path of Gyana Yoga may take a person To Brahman But Even Gyana Yoga Is a Means of Yoga And Yoga essentially is Linkage or connection between the soul and God So Ultimately Yoga is like a bridge Between the soul and God And the different paths are like Different aspects of that bridge So the path of Gyana Yoga Creates a bridge Between the Intellectual Rational Non-personal, non-emotional side Of a human being And the impersonal aspect Of the absolute truth Similarly the path of Yoga Focus Creates a bridge between The Austerity loving, mysticism loving side Of a human being And The mystic ability producing Side of the absolute truth So This could be an elaborate analysis But I will keep it brief here The underlying principle is That different Yogas Utilize Different aspects of Human personality That may be more in different persons And Utilizing Those aspects Connect those people With corresponding aspects of the absolute truth So This is an elaborate Vedic master plan Of elevating people gradually Along the spiritual path But Shri Prabhupada While being aware of this Subtle And gradual Vedic master plan Is also Focusing on its ultimate Goal And communicating that goal To us in a way that we Don’t get confused By the complex subtleties And miss out on the ultimate goal The ultimate goal Indicated by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita By all the Vedas I am to be known So Krishna Has this As the foremost goal Which he declares himself In 15.15 And reveals later Towards the climax In the Bhagavad Gita when he tells Arjuna To surrender to him and him alone 18.66 So Shri Prabhupada In general Connects All the Yogas With their ultimate perfection So Karma Yoga As an intermediate goal May make a person detached From material world and enable him to Get connected with some Aspect of the absolute truth But in its ultimate purpose It is meant to connect Everyone with Connect even the Karma Yogi With Krishna The supreme transcendental person The highest revelation Of the absolute truth And this is talked about Even in the Bhagavad Gita When Krishna says that In 3.30 After talking about Karma Yoga elaborately He says So he is telling the culmination of Karma Yoga Is Offer all the fruits of your work To me Similarly in 5.29 Which is also another chapter which deals with Karma Yoga 3rd and 5th chapters primarily deal with Karma Yoga In the 5th chapter The concluding verse is also The culmination Of the evolution of thought That goes through in that chapter And that verse also reveals How the perfection of Karma Yoga is Bhakti Yoga 5.29 Krishna says that Ultimately the Yogis Whoever they may be Whichever spiritual path they may be following They attain Shanti when they understand Krishna To be the supreme enjoyer Supreme proprietor and the supreme benefactor Of all living beings So Shila Prabhupada had a Explicit purpose Explicit purpose was extremely challenging Never before In the history of The Vedic tradition Had any Of its Teachers Have to communicate With an audience That was so radically different From its original audience Shila Prabhupada’s Target audience At one level was the whole world At the same time he also said In his own pranam mantra His primary audience was the western audience The western audience was Culturally Linguistically Philosophically Religiously Ethically Drastically Different from the original Vedic audience And while communicating This profound Vedic Multi-level Process of gradual elevation To such an audience Shila Prabhupada had to Balance precision With Accessibility He had to keep the message precise While at the same time keeping it accessible And understandable To the audience for whom he was writing So Shila Prabhupada Generally translates Verses in such a way that Their ultimate import And their practical Relevance is immediately revealed To the audience So we will see that When Shila Prabhupada translates Karma Yoga In many places in the Bhagavad Gita In his word to word translation He does give it Karma Yoga only But in his sentence translation He will make it devotional service So Shila Prabhupada doesn’t hide what he is doing For his readers He does what he does And he makes them think about what he is doing If the readers are Not very intellectual They will get the understanding That Shila Prabhupada is giving directly In his translations And that is actually the conclusion That devotional service is the ultimate way That is to be followed Now if the audience is intellectual And over judgmental Then they will think that Shila Prabhupada is just biased And he is Translating arbitrarily To justify His bias for bhakti But if the audience Is intellectual And open minded Then he is forced to think That if Shila Prabhupada is just biased Then he could have entirely avoided Giving the word to a translation And just given the literal translation And let people believe that Bhagavad Gita is Bhakti But Shila Prabhupada is quite open about What he is doing And he gives the original Sanskrit He gives the word to a translation And then he gives a translation Which he seems to translate Karma Yoga as Bhakti Yoga So why does Shila Prabhupada do such a thing? Because He wants even the intellectual audience To understand clearly That the conclusion of all paths Is Bhakti And that conclusion is indicated in the Bhagavad Gita itself So Krishna has his Own flow of thought But the conclusion of all thoughts Is Give up all paths and just surrender to me And practice Bhakti So that which is The That which is given at the end Of the Bhagavad Gita Shila Prabhupada Mercifully gives us throughout the Gita So Shila Prabhupada is not In one sense Contracting Krishna’s words He is compassionately making Krishna’s Conclusive words Accessible to us Throughout And Shila Prabhupada Is not alone or arbitrary in doing this This was the Recommendation of Narapuni to Vyasadeva When he chastises Vyasadeva for having taught So many sub-religious principles Which distract people’s attention From the ultimate principle of Pure devotional service To Lord Krishna So that’s why Being chastened by Narapuni Vyasadeva gives the Srimad Bhagavatam Which is Amal Purana Which focuses largely On the conclusion of Pure devotional service And avoids the Kaitavadharmas Of mundane religiosity Shila Prabhupada is following In the footsteps of Narapuni’s Instructions to Vyasadeva And giving us the devotional essence Of the various paths Now Krishna Chakravarti Dhakur In his commentary On the Gita Gives a very sophisticated analysis By which he shows how All the paths Require bhakti To be successful In their respective goals And at the same time If the bhakti element becomes maximized And if the practitioners of the various paths Become bhaktas Then alone they can attain the ultimate goal So in this way He shows also how bhakti and Bhagavan Are the supreme sadhana And supreme sadhana The path to the supreme goal Shila Prabhupada himself said that He would have liked to write More commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita Because so many Vyasa Charas are commented And the Bhagavad Gita can be mined For so much more Devotional depth and Philosophical insight So therefore If you understand Shila Prabhupada’s overall strategy And his strategy is Because he is writing To an audience that is so radically different From the original Vedic audience And because that audience May not have the patience Or the ability to Navigate their way To the complex, subtle And multi-level Vedic progression And because The ultimate conclusion Of the Vedic literature is unambiguous As far as the Bhagavad Gita is concerned That it is Krishna who is to be known And it is bhakti that is to be practiced Shila Prabhupada makes that Ultimate conclusion available to us Following the Pushyatma Admini And that is with this In mind that he translates Karma Yoga as Bhakti Yoga Because Karma Yoga ultimately concludes in Bhakti Yoga And leading people To that conclusion is the Exclusive thought flow of Krishna While speaking the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna