Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga

Krishna said: I taught this imperishable yoga to Vivasvan. Vivasvan taught it to Manu, and Manu told it to Ikshvaku.

Handed down this way in unbroken succession, the royal sages knew it. But over a long stretch of time, that yoga was lost here in the world.

That same ancient yoga I have taught to you today, because you are my devotee and my friend. For this is the supreme secret.

Arjuna said: Your birth was later, and Vivasvan's birth was earlier. How am I to understand that you taught it to him in the beginning?

Krishna said: Many births of mine have passed, Arjuna, and so have yours. I know them all, but you do not know them.

Though I am unborn and undying by nature, and the Lord of all beings, I take birth through my own power, presiding over my own nature.

Whenever righteousness declines and unrighteousness rises, then I manifest myself.

To protect the good, to destroy the wicked, and to establish righteousness, I take birth in every age.

One who truly knows my divine birth and actions is not born again after leaving the body. He comes to me, Arjuna.

Freed from attachment, fear, and anger, absorbed in me, taking refuge in me, purified by the austerity of knowledge, many have attained my state.

In whatever way people approach me, I favor them in that same way. People follow my path from every side, Arjuna.

Those who long for success in their actions worship the gods here. For in the human world, success born of action comes quickly.

The four classes were created by Me, divided according to their qualities and actions. Though I am the author of this, know Me as the changeless non-doer.

Actions do not taint Me, for I have no longing for the fruits of action. One who knows Me in this way is not bound by their own actions.

Knowing this, the ancient seekers of liberation also performed action. So you too should act, as the ancients did long ago.

What is action? What is inaction? Even the wise are confused about this. I will explain action to you, and knowing it, you will be freed from evil.

There is something to be understood about action, something about wrong action, and something about inaction. The way of action is hard to fathom.

One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among people. Such a one is steady in yoga and a doer of all actions.

The wise call that person learned whose every undertaking is free from desire and its motives, and whose actions are burned away by the fire of knowledge.

Having given up attachment to the fruits of action, ever content and depending on nothing, such a person does nothing at all, even while engaged in action.

Free from expectation, with mind and self controlled, having given up all possessions, performing action with the body alone, such a person incurs no sin.

Content with what comes unsought, beyond the pairs of opposites, free from envy, even-minded in success and failure, such a person acts yet is not bound.

For the one freed from attachment, liberated, whose mind is established in knowledge, who acts only for sacrifice, all action dissolves away.

The offering is Brahman; the oblation is Brahman; it is poured by Brahman into the fire of Brahman. Brahman alone is reached by the one absorbed in Brahman as action.

Some yogis offer sacrifice to the gods alone. Others offer the self as a sacrifice in the fire of Brahman.

Others offer the senses, such as hearing, into the fires of restraint. Others offer the objects of the senses, such as sound, into the fires of the senses.

Others offer all the activities of the senses and the activities of the vital breath into the fire of the yoga of self-control, kindled by knowledge.

Others, self-controlled and firm in their vows, make sacrifice through wealth, through austerity, and through yoga, while others sacrifice through study and knowledge.

Others, devoted to control of the breath, offer the outgoing breath into the incoming breath, and the incoming breath into the outgoing breath, restraining the movement of both.

Others, regulating their food, offer the vital breaths into the vital breaths. All of these know sacrifice, and through sacrifice their sins are destroyed.

Those who eat the nectar left over from sacrifice reach the eternal Brahman. This world is not for one who does not sacrifice. How then the other world, Arjuna?

So many kinds of sacrifice are spread out before Brahman. Know them all to be born of action. Knowing this, you will be freed.

The sacrifice of knowledge is greater than any sacrifice of material things, Arjuna. All action, without exception, culminates in knowledge.

Learn this through humble approach, through inquiry, and through service. The wise, who have seen the truth, will teach you this knowledge.

Knowing this, you will not fall into delusion again. By it you will see all beings, without exception, in the Self, and so in me.

Even if you are the worst sinner of all, you will cross over all wickedness on the raft of knowledge.

Arjuna, as a blazing fire reduces wood to ashes, so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes.

There is nothing in this world that purifies like knowledge. In time, the one perfected in yoga finds it within the Self.

The one who has faith, who is intent on it, and who has mastered the senses, gains knowledge. Having gained knowledge, that person soon reaches supreme peace.

The ignorant, the faithless, and the doubting person perishes. For one full of doubt there is neither this world nor the next, nor any happiness.

Arjuna, actions do not bind the one who has renounced actions through yoga, whose doubts have been cut away by knowledge, and who is settled in the Self.

So with the sword of knowledge cut away this doubt in your heart, born of ignorance. Take refuge in yoga. Arise, Arjuna.