Ego & Doership

Ahaṃkāra — the illusion of 'I did this' — 56 verses, starred ones first.

3.27 ★ All actions are done by the gunas of nature. The ego-deluded one thinks 'I am the doer' — this is the root of bondage.
4.18 ★ Seeing inaction in action, action in inaction — that one is wise, a yogi, a complete doer of all actions.
6.6 ★ Your own mind is your best friend when mastered; your worst enemy when not.
12.13 ★ Not hating, friendly, compassionate, without 'mine' or 'I', equal in pain and joy, forgiving — the dear devotee!
6.40 ☆ O Pārtha — no destruction for that one, neither here nor hereafter. For never does any doer of good come to an evil end.
7.4 ☆ Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, ego — these eight are the divisions of My lower nature.
18.17 ☆ One with no ego-doer-sense, whose buddhi is untainted — even while killing all these beings, kills not, is not bound.
18.20 ☆ Sāttvic jñāna: seeing ONE imperishable being in ALL — undivided among the divided.
1.2 Seeing the opposing army, a worried prince rushes to his teacher for reassurance.
1.7 Having surveyed the enemy, Duryodhana now needs to reassure himself by listing his own assets.
1.9 Men are ready to die 'for my sake' — and Duryodhana names this fact without apparent weight.
1.10 A famously ambiguous verse: Duryodhana either boasts of limitless strength or admits hidden doubt.
2.71 Move through the world free from longing, free from 'mine,' free from ego — that is how peace is reached.
3.6 Sitting still while the mind craves sense-objects is not discipline — the Gita calls it hypocrisy.
4.13 Four varnas arise by guna and karma — not by birth. Though creator, I remain the non-doer, imperishable.
4.17 Three things must be understood: action, wrong-action, inaction. The nature of action is deep and impenetrable.
5.8 The truth-knower thinks 'I do nothing' while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing.
5.9 'I do nothing' — continued: speaking, releasing, grasping, blinking: senses move among sense-objects, not I.
5.14 The Lord creates neither doership, actions, nor fruit-unions for the world — svabhāva alone operates.
6.2 What they call sannyāsa — know it as yoga, O Pāṇḍava — for none becomes a yogī without renouncing saṃkalpa.
7.15 The evildoer, the deluded, the lowest of men, those whose knowledge māyā has stolen — these do not take refuge in Me.
13.6 Five elements, ego, intellect, unmanifest — plus ten senses, mind, five sense-objects: the kṣetra enumerated.
13.9 Dispassion toward sense-objects, no ego, and clearly seeing birth-death-age-disease as painful — this is jñāna!
13.30 Seeing all actions done by prakṛti alone and the Self as non-doer — that is true seeing.
13.32 Paramātmā: beginningless, nirguṇa, imperishable — dwelling in the body, yet neither acts nor is tainted.
14.19 When the seer sees only guṇas as agents and knows what is beyond them — he attains My being.
14.24 Equal in pleasure-pain, clod-stone-gold, agreeable-disagreeable, censure-praise — the guṇātīta abides in self.
14.25 Equal in honor and disgrace, equal to friend and foe, abandoning all undertakings — he has gone beyond guṇas.
15.5 Free from pride, moha, attachment and desire, the dvandva-unbound, undeluded ones reach the imperishable goal.
15.14 I am Vaiśvānara — the digestive fire in every living body — digesting all four kinds of food with prāṇa and apāna.
16.4 Six āsurī qualities: dambha, darpa, abhimāna, krodha, pāruṣya, ajñāna — all rooted in ego-assertion and ignorance.
16.10 Driven by insatiable kāma, hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, gripping false notions through moha — impure resolves.
16.13 The ego-monologue: 'I gained this today. I'll get that next. This is mine — and more wealth will be mine too.'
16.14 'I slew that enemy; I'll slay others. I am Lord, Enjoyer, Perfect, Powerful, Happy' — the ego-apotheosis of the āsurī.
16.15 The ego-apex: 'I am rich, well-born — who equals me? I'll sacrifice, give, rejoice.' — all deluded by ajñāna.
16.16 Many thoughts, moha-net covering them, addicted to kāma-enjoyments — they fall into impure naraka.
16.17 Self-complacent, stubborn, wealth-proud — they perform name-only sacrifices, ostentatiously ignoring śāstric ordinance.
17.4 Sāttvic worship Devas; rājasic worship Yakṣas/Rākṣasas; tāmasic worship pretas and bhūta-hosts.
17.5 Those who practice ghora tapas without śāstric sanction, driven by dambha, ahaṃkāra, kāma and rāga — āsurī tapas.
17.6 They torture their body's elements AND Me who dwell within — know these fools to be of āsurī resolve.
17.19 Tāmasic tapas: done with foolish delusion, self-torture, or to destroy another — declared tāmasic.
18.13 Learn these five causes of all action from Me, O Mighty-armed — as declared in the Sāṃkhya final teaching.
18.15 Whatever action a person initiates with body, speech, and mind — right or the reverse — these five are its causes.
18.16 One who — given the five causes — sees the self alone as doer due to unrefined intellect sees not; that is durmati.
18.18 Three-fold impulse to action: knowledge, knowable, knower. Three-fold action-structure: organ, act, agent.
18.19 Knowledge, action, and agent are each three-fold by guṇa-distinction — as declared in the guṇa-science. Hear them.
18.24 Rājasic karma: done desiring pleasures or with ego-pride, involving great effort.
18.26 Sāttvic kartā: attachment-free, non-egotistic, firm, enthusiastic, unmoved by success or failure.
18.27 Rājasic kartā: passionate, fruit-desiring, greedy, cruel-natured, impure, subject to elation and sorrow.
18.34 Rājasic dhṛti: holds fast to dharma, kāma, and artha with attachment, desiring the fruit of each.
18.35 Tāmasic dhṛti: the dull-witted one does not give up sleep, fear, grief, despondency, and pride.
18.36 Hear the three-fold happiness from Me, O Bharata-bull — learned through practice, leading to the end of pain.
18.53 Releasing ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha, possessions — free from mine-ness, tranquil — fit for becoming Brahman.
18.58 With mind in Me, by My grace you will cross all obstacles; but from egotism if you will not hear, you will perish.
18.59 If from egotism you think 'I will not fight' — vain is this resolve; Prakṛti will compel you.
18.60 Bound by your svabhāva-born karma, what from delusion you don't wish to do — you will do even helplessly.