Chapter 5 · opening

The Yoga of Renunciation of Action

Karma Sanyasa Yoga

  1. 5.1 Arjuna asks: You praise both renunciation and action — tell me decisively which is truly better.
  2. 5.2 Both sannyāsa and karma-yoga lead to liberation — karma-yoga surpasses mere renunciation.
  3. 5.3 The eternal renunciant neither desires nor hates — free from all opposites, easily freed from bondage.
  4. 5.4 Only the immature see Sānkhya and Yoga as separate — the wise know one path, practiced rightly, yields both fruits.
  5. 5.5 What Sānkhya attains, Yoga reaches too — they are one. Who truly sees this truly sees.
  6. 5.6 Renunciation without yoga is painful to achieve — the yoga-joined muni attains Brahman swiftly.
  7. 5.7 Yoga-joined, purified, self-controlled, seeing one's Self as the Self of all beings — even while acting, untainted.
  8. 5.8 The truth-knower thinks 'I do nothing' while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing.
  9. 5.9 'I do nothing' — continued: speaking, releasing, grasping, blinking: senses move among sense-objects, not I.
  10. 5.10 Surrendering all actions to Brahman, abandoning attachment — like a lotus leaf, sin never clings.
  11. 5.11 Yogis act with body, mind, intellect, and bare senses — abandoning attachment — solely for self-purification.
  12. 5.12 The yogi abandons fruit and attains lasting peace. The non-yogi, bound to fruit by desire, is fettered.
  13. 5.13 The self-controlled one mentally renounces all actions, rests happily in the nine-gated city — not acting, not causing.
  14. 5.14 The Lord creates neither doership, actions, nor fruit-unions for the world — svabhāva alone operates.
  15. 5.15 The all-pervading Lord takes neither sin nor merit from anyone — ignorance veils knowledge and deludes all beings.
  16. 5.16 When knowledge destroys ignorance of the Self, it illumines the Supreme — like the sun dispelling darkness.
  17. 5.17 Absorbed in That, self rooted in That, devoted to That — knowledge-purified, they reach non-return.
  18. 5.18 ★ The paṇḍita sees equally in a learned Brahmin, cow, elephant, dog, and outcaste — sama-darśana.
  19. 5.19 Equanimous minds conquer birth here itself — Brahman is flawless and equal, thus they rest in Brahman.
  20. 5.20 Not elated at pleasant, not disturbed at unpleasant — steady, undeluded, the brahma-vit rests in Brahman.
  21. 5.21 Unattached to outer touches, finding joy within — joined to Brahman-yoga, the soul enjoys inexhaustible bliss.
  22. 5.22 Sense-born pleasures are wombs of sorrow — they have a beginning and end; the wise takes no delight in them.
  23. 5.23 Withstand desire and anger's force here in this body — that one is yoked, that one is happy.
  24. 5.24 Joy within, delight within, light within — that yogi, become Brahman, attains brahma-nirvāṇa.
  25. 5.25 Seers with sins destroyed, doubts cut, self-controlled, devoted to all beings' welfare — they attain brahma-nirvāṇa.
  26. 5.26 For those freed from desire and anger, with controlled minds, knowing the Self — brahma-nirvāṇa exists on all sides.
  27. 5.27 Sense contacts excluded, gaze fixed between brows, breath equalized — this is the meditation posture for liberation.
  28. 5.28 With senses, mind and buddhi controlled, free of desire, fear and anger — the liberation-oriented muni is ever-free.
  29. 5.29 ★ Knowing Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifice and austerity, Great Lord of all worlds, Friend of all beings — peace comes.