In plain words
To experience this sacred Ātma principle, we must also help ourselves so that certain kinds of karma stand as limbs of Dharma and thereby become what develops our divinity. Now, some people do say that all karmas are limbs of Dharma. But not all karmas can be limbs of Dharma. Some others also say that sāttvic karmas, karmas connected with nivṛtti, are limbs of Dharma. Because such sāttvic karmas, karmas connected with nivṛtti, are said to be limbs of Dharma, we perform many kinds of karma. To look on a person with compassion, or to kill in war those who are enemies of the country, comes under karma just the same. These too can surely be called dharmas, can they not! For the sake of protecting and nourishing the body, the basis of acts of Dharma, there is the bond with sense desires that enjoy the cravings of that body; since these too are, after all, karmas, can they too be called limbs of Dharma? But these: people who cannot recognise Satya and Dharma, who long only for physical desires, may call them true if they like, but these cannot be limbs of Dharma. Karmas one performs after separating selfishness and the vāsanā of the senses from the mind can be called limbs of Dharma. Karmas done after giving up such vāsanās and selfishness are not only to be called limbs of Dharma; they stand ready to carry man to a higher level of a kind. We can take a small example. Burning, showing light, going out when the wind blows, crackling and sputtering when water touches it, scattering smoke: these can be called some of the lamp's characteristics, its qualities. But the light of that flame keeps reaching everyone quite equally. In the light, at least, there is evenness. The lamp, for its part, may have many qualities. In the same way, though Dharma gives one and the same evenness to all people, to all times and to all places, it also comes to be divided into certain kinds of karma for certain countries, certain times and certain kinds of persons. But we must find out whether these dharmas belong to pravṛtti or to nivṛtti.