Karma Sanyasa Yoga

Arjuna said: Krishna, you praise the renunciation of actions, and you also praise the yoga of action. Tell me for certain which of the two is better.

Krishna said: Both renunciation and the yoga of action lead to the highest good. But of the two, the yoga of action is the better.

Know him to be a constant renouncer who neither hates nor desires. Free from the pairs of opposites, he is easily released from bondage.

Only the childish, not the wise, speak of Sankhya and yoga as separate. Whoever is firmly established in even one of them gains the fruit of both.

The state reached by the followers of Sankhya is also reached by the followers of yoga. Whoever sees Sankhya and yoga as one truly sees.

But renunciation is hard to attain without yoga. The sage joined to yoga reaches Brahman before long.

Joined to yoga, pure in mind, master of himself, his senses subdued, he knows his Self as the Self of all beings. Though he acts, he is not stained.

The knower of truth, joined to yoga, should think: I do nothing at all. For while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing,

speaking, releasing, grasping, opening and closing the eyes, he holds firm to this: it is the senses that move among the objects of the senses.

Whoever acts dedicating his actions to Brahman, having let go of attachment, is untouched by sin, as a lotus leaf is untouched by water.

Letting go of attachment, the yogis perform action with the body, the mind, the discernment, and even the senses alone, for the purification of the self.

Joined to yoga, having given up the fruits of action, one attains lasting peace. The unsteady one, driven by desire and attached to the fruits, is bound.

Having renounced all actions in the mind, the embodied self rests happily in the city of nine gates, self-controlled. It neither acts nor causes anything to be done.

The Self creates no sense of doership for the world, and no actions, and no link with the fruits of action. It is nature that runs its course.

The all-pervading Self takes on no one's sin and no one's merit. Knowledge is covered by ignorance, and so beings are deluded.

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

Their discernment is fixed on That, their self is That, they are steadfast in That, and That is their supreme goal. Their impurities are washed away by knowledge, and they reach the state of no return.

The wise look with an equal eye on a Brahmin rich in learning and humility, on a cow, an elephant, a dog, and one who eats dog meat.

Even here, those whose minds rest in sameness have conquered creation. Brahman is flawless and the same in all; so they are established in Brahman.

The knower of Brahman, established in Brahman, has steady discernment and is not deluded. He does not rejoice on getting what is pleasant, and is not disturbed on getting what is unpleasant.

With the self unattached to outer contacts, he finds the bliss that is in the Self. With the self joined to Brahman in meditation, he attains undying bliss.

The pleasures born of contact are sources of pain. They have a beginning and an end. The wise do not delight in them.

One who can withstand, even here, before leaving the body, the force that springs from desire and anger, that person is a yogi. He is happy.

One whose happiness is within, whose delight is within, whose light is only within, that yogi becomes Brahman and attains absorption in Brahman.

The seers attain absorption in Brahman. Their sins are washed away, their doubts cut through, their minds disciplined, and they delight in the welfare of all beings.

For those who are free from desire and anger, whose minds are controlled, who have realized the Self, absorption in Brahman lies near on every side.

Shut out the contacts of the outer world. Fix the gaze between the eyebrows. Make the outgoing and incoming breaths even as they move through the nostrils.

The sage who has mastered the senses, the mind, and the discernment, intent on liberation, free from desire, fear, and anger, is forever free.

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