Chapter 5

Arjuna said: Kṛṣṇa, You recommend the renunciation of action and then again praise karma-yoga. Tell me conclusively which of the two is better.

Renunciation of action and karma-yoga both lead to the highest good. But of the two, karma-yoga is superior to the renunciation of action.

One who neither resents nor desires anything should be known as a permanent renunciate. One who is free from the pairs of opposites is easily liberated from bondage, O mighty-armed Arjuna.

The inexperienced speak of jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga as separate, but not the wise. One who is firmly established in even just one path attains the fruit of both.

The state which is attained by the jñāna-yogīs is also attained by the karma-yogīs. The one who sees both jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga as one sees truly.

But renunciation is hard to achieve without karma-yoga, O mighty-armed Arjuna. The sage absorbed in this yoga attains realization without delay.

One who is engaged in karma-yoga, has a pure heart, who has subdued the mind and conquered the senses, perceives the ātmā as the essence of all beings and remains untainted even while acting.

The one who is engaged in yoga is aware that even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing, speaking, releasing, grasping, as well as opening and closing the eyes, it is just the senses operating among sense-objects. Such a knower of truth thus considers, “I do nothing”.

One who acts, surrendering one’s actions to the Lord and having given up attachment, is not tainted by sin, just as a lotus leaf is unaffected by water.

Having given up attachment, yogīs perform action by the body, mind, intellect and even with the senses alone, for the purification of the mind.

Giving up the fruits of action, the selfless yogī attains everlasting peace. But the one who works selfishly is attached to the results of action, impelled by desire and thus remains bound.

Mentally renouncing all actions, the embodied Self who has controlled the senses lives happily in the city of nine gates, neither acting nor causing the body to act.

The Lord does not create the sense of agency, neither does He initiate people’s actions, nor does He create the connection between actions and their result—the jīva’s external nature accomplishes all this.

The all-pervading Lord does not take on the sin or merit of any person. Mortal beings however are deluded by ignorance which covers their knowledge.

But for some, that ignorance covering the Self is destroyed by realization; their knowledge, like the sun, reveals the Supreme.

Those whose intellects are absorbed in Him, whose minds are focused on Him, who are fixed in Him, and who have Him as their supreme goal, attain the state from which there is no return, cleansed from all impurities by knowledge.

The sages perceive with equal vision, a learned and modest brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcaste.

Those whose minds are lodged in equanimity have risen beyond the conditions of the material world, even while still here in this world. Since Brahman is without faults and equanimous, they are considered to be fixed in Brahman.

One who knows Brahman and is established in Brahman possesses a stable intellect, is free from delusion and neither rejoices when gaining what is pleasant nor grieves when receiving what is unpleasant.

One whose mind is detached from external sensations finds the happiness that is natural to the ātmā and one whose entire self is absorbed in the Lord through yoga enjoys endless bliss.

Pleasures that arise from contact with the external world are indeed sources of suffering alone. Having a beginning and an end, O son of Kuntī, a wise person does not rejoice in them.

In this very human life, someone who can tolerate the impulses arising from desire and anger before shedding the body is a true yogī and a joyful person.

One who is joyful within, whose delight is within, and who is illumined within, is a true yogī. He is established in Brahman and attains the bliss of Brahman.

The sages whose doubts have been destroyed, who are self-controlled and are devoted to the welfare of all beings, become cleansed of all impurities and attain the bliss of Brahman.

For the ascetics who are free from desire and anger, whose minds are controlled, and who have realized the ātmā, the bliss of Brahman is near.

Keeping out all thoughts of external objects, focusing the inner gaze between the eyebrows alone, regulating the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils and having controlled the senses, mind, and intellect, the sage aspiring for liberation who is free from desire, fear, and anger is verily always free.

Thus knowing Me to be the supreme enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Lord of all worlds, and the friend of every being, one attains peace.