Krishjan

Chapter 5 — Karma Sanyasa Yoga

Bhagavad Gita

29 Shloka • Translation Only

Arjuna said: O Krishna, You praise the renunciation of actions, and then again You praise Yoga through action. Tell me decisively which of these two is truly the better path.

The Blessed Lord said: Both renunciation of action and Karma Yoga lead to the highest good. Yet, of the two, Karma Yoga is superior to the renunciation of action.

One who neither hates nor desires should be known as a true and perpetual renunciate. For, O mighty-armed one, being free from the pairs of opposites, such a person is easily liberated from bondage.

The paths of Sankhya and Yoga are spoken of separately by the unlearned, not by the wise. One who is firmly established in either path attains the same fruit.

The state attained through Sankhya is also reached through Yoga. One who sees Sankhya and Yoga as one truly sees.

O mighty-armed one, renunciation alone leads to suffering and cannot quickly remove misery. But a sage united with Yoga, devoted to action in wisdom, attains Brahman swiftly.

One united with Yoga, pure in heart, self-controlled, and master of the senses, who sees the Self in all beings while acting, is not tainted by action.

The knower of Truth, united with Yoga, does think, “I do nothing.” While seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, or breathing, such a person knows that all actions are performed by the body and senses, not by the Self.

While speaking, releasing, grasping, opening the eyes, or closing them, one should understand that the senses alone move among their objects, and that the Self does not act.

One who performs all actions as an offering to Brahman, abandoning attachment, is not touched by sin, just as a lotus leaf remains untouched by water.

With body, mind, intellect, and even the senses alone, the yogis perform actions, having renounced attachment, for the purification of the Self.

One who is united in Yoga, having abandoned attachment to the fruits of action, attains lasting peace. But one who is not united, driven by desire and attached to results, becomes bound.

One who has renounced all actions in the mind enjoys true happiness and mastery. Like a person dwelling in a city with nine gates, the embodied soul neither acts nor causes action.

The Lord does not create a sense of doership or actions in the world. Nor is there any attachment to the fruits of action; all arises according to the nature (Svabhāva).

The Supreme Being neither incurs sin nor bestows merit on anyone. It is knowledge veiled by ignorance that deludes living beings.

But for those whose ignorance has been destroyed by knowledge of the Self, that knowledge, like the sun, reveals the Supreme Reality.

Those whose intellect and Self are established in that knowledge, and who are devoted to that Supreme, attain liberation and do not return, their impurities having been destroyed by wisdom.

The wise see with equal vision a learned and humble Brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even one who eats dogs. They perceive the same reality in all beings.

Here, in this life, those whose minds are established in equanimity have conquered creation. They see Brahman as pure and equal in all, and therefore remain established in Brahman.

The knower of Brahman, firmly established in Brahman, is neither elated on receiving the pleasant, nor disturbed on encountering the unpleasant, remaining steady in intellect and free from delusion.

One whose mind is not attached to external sense-contacts finds joy within the Self. United with Brahman through Yoga, such a person experiences endless and imperishable happiness.

Those pleasures born of sense contact are the very sources of suffering. O Kaunteya, the wise do not delight in them, for they have a beginning and an end.

One who here, in this life, can endure the urge of desire and anger before leaving the body, is truly united in Yoga, and such a person is happy and strong.

One who finds happiness within, delights within, and is illumined within, such a Yogi, having become one with Brahman, attains Brahma-Nirvāṇa.

The sages, whose impurities have been destroyed, whose doubts have been cut asunder, and whose minds are disciplined, who delight in the welfare of all beings, attain Brahma-Nirvāṇa.

For those ascetics whose minds are free from desire and anger, whose consciousness is disciplined, Brahma-Nirvāṇa lies before them, already realized by their Self-aware intellect.

Keeping external sense objects outside, fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, and balancing the incoming and outgoing breaths moving within the nostrils, one becomes absorbed in spiritual discipline.

The sage who has mastered the senses, mind, and intellect, who is devoted to liberation, and who is free from desire, fear, and anger, is ever truly free.

Knowing Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all worlds, and the friend of all beings, one attains peace.