Chapter 5: Renunciation
कर्मसंन्यासयोग · 29 verses. Arjuna said: My Lord! At one moment, You praise renunciation of action; at another, You praise right action. Tell me truly, I pray, which of these is more conducive to my highest welfare?
- 5.1 Arjuna said: My Lord! At one moment, You praise renunciation of action; at another, You praise right action.
- 5.2 Lord Shri Krishna replied: Both renunciation of action and the path of right action lead to the highest; however, right action is the better of the two.
- 5.3 He is a true ascetic who never desires nor dislikes, who is unaffected by the opposites and is easily freed from bondage.
- 5.4 Only the unenlightened speak of wisdom and right action as separate; the wise do not. If anyone knows one, they enjoy the fruit of both.
- 5.5 The level which is attained through wisdom is also reached through right action. He who perceives that the two are one, knows the truth.
- 5.6 Without concentration, O Mighty One, renunciation is difficult. But the sage who is always meditating on the Divine, shall soon attain the Absolute.
- 5.7 He who is spiritual, pure, has overcome his senses and his personal self, and has realized his highest Self as the Self of all—even though he acts, he is not bound by his…
- 5.8 Though the saint sees, hears, touches, smells, eats, moves, sleeps, and breathes, yet he knows the truth and knows that it is not he who acts.
- 5.9 Though he talks, gives, receives, opens his eyes, and shuts them, he still knows that his senses are merely disporting themselves among the objects of perception.
- 5.10 He who dedicates his actions to the Spirit, without any personal attachment to them, is no more tainted by sin than the water lily is wetted by water.
- 5.11 The sage performs his action dispassionately, using his body, mind, intellect, and even his senses, always as a means for purification.
- 5.12 Having abandoned the fruit of action, he wins eternal peace.
- 5.13 Mentally renouncing all actions, the self-controlled soul enjoys bliss in this body, the city of the nine gates, neither doing anything themselves nor causing anything to…
- 5.14 The Lord of this universe has not ordained activity, nor any incentive thereto, nor any relation between an act and its consequences; all this is the work of Nature.
- 5.15 The Lord does not accept responsibility for any person's sin or merit; they are deluded, for wisdom is submerged in ignorance within them.
- 5.16 Surely, wisdom is like the sun, revealing the supreme truth to those whose ignorance has been dispelled by the wisdom of the Self.
- 5.17 Meditating on the divine, having faith in the divine, concentrating on the divine, and losing themselves in the divine, their sins dissolve in wisdom, and they go from wh…
- 5.18 Sages look upon all equally, whether they be a minister of learning and humility, an infidel, a cow, an elephant, or a dog.
- 5.19 Even in this world, those whose minds remain always balanced, fixed on the Supreme, conquer their earthly life; for the Supreme has neither blemish nor bias.
- 5.20 He who knows and lives in the Absolute remains unmoved and unperturbed; he is not elated by pleasure nor depressed by pain.
- 5.21 He finds happiness in his own Self and enjoys eternal bliss, whose heart does not yearn for the contacts of the earth and whose Self is one with the Everlasting.
- 5.22 The joys that spring from external associations bring pain; they have their beginnings and their endings. The wise person does not rejoice in them.
- 5.23 He who, before leaving his body, learns to overcome the promptings of desire and anger, is a saint and is happy.
- 5.24 He who is happy within himself and has found its peace, and in whom the inner light shines, that sage attains eternal bliss and becomes one with the spirit.
- 5.25 Sages whose sins have been washed away, whose sense of separateness has dissipated, who have subdued themselves, and seek only the welfare of all, come to the Eternal Spi…
- 5.26 Saints who know themselves, who control their minds, and feel neither desire nor anger, find eternal bliss everywhere.
- 5.27 Excluding external objects, with his gaze fixed between the eyebrows, and the inward and outward breathings passing equally through his nostrils;
- 5.28 Governing sense, mind, and intellect, intent on liberation, free from desire, fear, and anger, the sage is eternally free.
- 5.29 Knowing Me as the One who gladly receives all offerings of austerity and sacrifice, as the Mighty Ruler of all the Worlds and the Friend of all beings, he passes to Etern…