Knowledge & Wisdom

Jñāna — seeing things as they are — 191 verses, starred ones first.

2.11 ★ You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
2.50 ★ The wisdom-yoked person rises above good and bad karma alike. Yoga is supreme skill in action.
2.54 ★ Arjuna asks: what does the truly wise person look like? How do they speak, sit, and move?
4.11 ★ However you approach Me — I respond in that same way. All human paths ultimately follow My path.
4.18 ★ Seeing inaction in action, action in inaction — that one is wise, a yogi, a complete doer of all actions.
4.34 ★ Approach the teacher with prostration, inquiry, and service. The knowers of truth will instruct you in jñāna.
4.38 ★ Nothing in this world purifies like jñāna. The karma-yogi finds it within themselves in time.
7.3 ★ Among thousands, one strives for perfection — and among the perfected, perhaps one knows Me in truth.
7.7 ★ Beyond Me there is nothing whatsoever — all this is strung in Me, as gems upon a thread.
7.14 ★ This divine māyā of Mine, made of the guṇas, is hard to cross — but those who take refuge in Me alone do cross it.
7.19 ★ At the end of many births, the wise takes refuge in Me — 'Vāsudeva is all.' That great soul is exceedingly rare.
10.8 ★ I am the origin of all; from Me all evolves — knowing this, the wise worship Me with loving devotion.
15.15 ★ I am in every heart — source of memory, knowledge, and forgetting; all Vedas point to Me, their author and knower.
17.3 ★ Faith follows one's inner nature. The person IS their śraddhā — whatever one's faith is, that is exactly what one is.
18.54 ★ Brahman-become, serene, neither grieving nor desiring, equal to all beings — he attains supreme bhakti to Me.
18.63 ★ This knowledge, more secret than all secrets, has been declared to you — reflect on it fully and act as you wish.
18.66 ★ Abandon all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone — I will liberate you from all sins; do not grieve.
18.78 ★ Where yogeśvara Kṛṣṇa is, where archer Pārtha stands — there abide fortune, victory, flourishing, and steadfast dharma.
2.13 ☆ Your body changed from childhood to age without 'you' dying — changing bodies is no different.
2.55 ☆ Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
4.1 ☆ I taught this imperishable yoga to the sun-god at the dawn of time — it has been passed down through kings ever since.
6.8 ☆ Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.
7.1 ☆ With mind attached, practising yoga, taking refuge in Me — hear how you shall know Me fully, without doubt.
7.2 ☆ I shall declare knowledge and experiential wisdom — knowing which, nothing more remains to be known in this world.
7.4 ☆ Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, ego — these eight are the divisions of My lower nature.
7.5 ☆ Know My higher nature — the life-element (jīva-bhūtā) distinct from the lower — by which this world is sustained.
7.6 ☆ All beings arise from these two natures as their womb — and I am the origin and dissolution of the entire universe.
7.8 ☆ I am the taste in water, the radiance in sun and moon, OM in the Vedas, sound in ether, and vital power in beings.
7.10 ☆ Know Me as the eternal seed of all beings — I am the intelligence of the intelligent, the splendour of the splendid.
7.12 ☆ All sāttvic, rājasic, and tāmasic states proceed from Me — yet I am not in them; they are in Me.
7.13 ☆ Deluded by the three guṇa-constituted states, all this world does not recognize Me — beyond them, imperishable.
7.16 ☆ Four kinds of virtuous persons worship Me: the distressed, the seeker, the ends-seeker, and the wise.
7.17 ☆ Of the four, the jñānī excels — ever steadfast, one-pointed: I am supremely dear to the wise; the wise is dear to Me.
7.18 ☆ Noble are all — but the jñānī I regard as My very Self; with united mind, resting in Me alone as the supreme goal.
7.21 ☆ Whatever form a devotee seeks to worship with śraddhā — that very faith I make unwavering.
7.23 ☆ The fruit of those of little understanding is finite — god-worshippers go to the gods; My devotees come to Me.
7.28 ☆ Those whose sin has ended — virtuous in deed, freed from dvandva-delusion — worship Me with firm resolve.
7.29 ☆ Taking refuge in Me for liberation from old age and death — they know Brahman, Adhyātma, and all of Karma.
7.30 ☆ Those who know Me as Adhibhūta, Adhidaiva, and Adhiyajña — they know Me even at death, with unified minds.
8.13 ☆ Uttering OM — the single syllable of Brahman — departing while meditating on Me, one reaches the highest goal.
13.3 ☆ Know Me as the kṣetrajña in ALL fields — and the knowledge of field + knower is true knowledge!
13.18 ☆ Light of lights, beyond darkness — knowledge, the Knowable, reached through knowledge — dwelling in every heart.
15.20 ☆ This most secret śāstra spoken — knowing it, one becomes truly wise and kṛta-kṛtya: all duties fulfilled.
16.1 ☆ Daivī wealth begins: abhaya, sattva-śuddhi, jñāna-yoga, dāna, dama, yajña, svādhyāya, tapa, ārjava.
16.3 ☆ The final daivī qualities: tejas, kṣamā, dhṛti, śauca, adroha, nātimānitā — belonging to one born to divine nature.
18.20 ☆ Sāttvic jñāna: seeing ONE imperishable being in ALL — undivided among the divided.
18.55 ☆ By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
1.3 Duryodhana points to the enemy army and subtly reminds his teacher of a painful irony.
1.19 The sound of righteous forces pierces the hearts of those who know they are on the wrong side.
1.43 Tradition says this is a path to hell — and we are about to walk it knowingly.
2.8 Not even the greatest kingdom imaginable can cure this grief — material solutions have reached their limit.
2.10 Into the silence, between two armies — Krishna smiles and begins to speak.
2.15 The person unmoved by pleasure and pain is fit for liberation — equanimity is not coldness but freedom.
2.16 The impermanent never truly is; the Real never stops being. The seers of truth have verified this.
2.21 If you know the soul is indestructible — who kills whom?
2.25 Unmanifest, inconceivable, unchangeable — knowing this, you should not grieve.
2.44 Minds absorbed in pleasure and power cannot settle into the resolute intelligence — they are carried away.
2.46 When you have the ocean, what need is there for a well? When you have Self-knowledge, the Vedas serve a smaller purpose.
2.49 Acting for reward is the lowest form of action. Seek the wisdom that transcends reward-seeking.
2.51 Wise action without fruit-seeking breaks the birth-cycle and leads to the sorrowless state.
2.52 When your mind crosses the fog of delusion, you'll outgrow both past teachings and future ones.
2.57 No sticky attachment anywhere — meeting good or bad without rejoicing or hatred. Wisdom firmly rooted.
2.58 Like a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise one withdraws senses from objects. Wisdom stands firm.
2.61 Control all senses, sit in yoga focused on the Supreme — that one's wisdom stands unshakable.
2.65 In prasāda (inner clarity), all suffering falls away. The serene mind's wisdom becomes swiftly established.
2.66 No discipline → no wisdom → no contemplation → no peace → no happiness. The chain is unbroken.
2.67 When mind follows the wandering senses, wisdom is carried away — like wind sweeps a ship off course.
2.68 Therefore: completely withdraw the senses from their objects in all directions. That is established wisdom.
3.1 Arjuna's honest confusion: if wisdom is better than action, why push me into this terrible fight?
3.3 Two paths: knowledge for the reflective, action for the active. Both lead to the same summit.
3.26 Don't shake the intellect of those not ready for the philosophy. Lead by example — let your action draw others forward.
3.28 The tattva-vit sees gunas moving among gunas and does not become attached. Knowledge itself produces liberation.
3.29 Those deluded by gunas cling to guna-actions. The one with complete knowledge acts with compassionate restraint.
3.31 Practice this teaching with faith and without fault-finding — you are freed from karma. No full understanding required.
3.32 Those who carp and refuse to practice: deluded across all knowledge, ruined, without real consciousness.
3.33 Even the wise act by their nature. All beings follow nature. Forced repression accomplishes nothing.
3.38 Fire covered by smoke, mirror by dust, embryo by womb — so is wisdom covered by desire. The cover varies in density.
3.40 Desire operates at all three levels — senses, mind, intellect. It covers knowledge at each and deludes completely.
3.41 Therefore: control the senses first. Then slay this sinful destroyer of both knowledge and direct wisdom.
3.43 Know the Self as higher than the intellect. Steady the self by the Self. Then slay the formidable enemy — desire.
4.2 Royal sages received this yoga through succession — but vast time destroyed it. That is why it must be re-taught.
4.4 Arjuna: You were born after Vivasvān — how could You have taught him at the start of time?
4.5 Both of us have had many births. I know all of them — you do not. That is the difference.
4.9 Whoever truly knows My divine birth and action — leaving the body, they do not return. They come to Me.
4.10 Many, freed from attachment, fear, and anger, purified by knowledge-austerity — have attained My being.
4.14 Actions don't taint Me — I have no longing for their fruits. Whoever knows Me thus is not bound by their actions.
4.16 Even the wise are confused about action vs. inaction. I will explain — knowing this frees you from all wrong.
4.17 Three things must be understood: action, wrong-action, inaction. The nature of action is deep and impenetrable.
4.19 All actions free from desire and intention; karmas burned by jñāna's fire — the wise call this one paṇḍita.
4.23 For the liberated one — attachment gone, mind settled in knowledge, acting for yajna — all karma completely dissolves.
4.25 Some offer to the gods as yajna. Others offer yajna itself into the fire of Brahman — the practice becomes the offering.
4.27 All sense-actions, all vital-breath actions — offered into the fire of self-mastery yoga, kindled by knowledge.
4.28 Wealth, austerity, yoga, self-study, knowledge — all valid yajna for ascetics with sharpened vows.
4.33 Knowledge-yajna surpasses all material sacrifice. Every action without exception culminates in knowledge.
4.35 Knowing this you will not fall into delusion again — you will see all beings in the Self, and thus in Me.
4.36 Even the most sinful — the boat of knowledge carries you across all wrong. No sin is too great for jñāna.
4.37 As fire reduces wood to ash, so jñānāgni burns all karmas completely to ash.
4.39 The faithful, devoted, sense-controlled person attains jñāna — and quickly reaches supreme peace.
4.41 Action renounced through yoga, doubt cut by knowledge, self-possessed — actions cannot bind that person.
4.42 Cut with jñāna's sword this doubt born of ignorance in your heart. Stand in yoga — arise, O Arjuna!
5.4 Only the immature see Sānkhya and Yoga as separate — the wise know one path, practiced rightly, yields both fruits.
5.8 The truth-knower thinks 'I do nothing' while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing.
5.15 The all-pervading Lord takes neither sin nor merit from anyone — ignorance veils knowledge and deludes all beings.
5.16 When knowledge destroys ignorance of the Self, it illumines the Supreme — like the sun dispelling darkness.
5.17 Absorbed in That, self rooted in That, devoted to That — knowledge-purified, they reach non-return.
7.9 I am the sacred fragrance in earth, the brilliance in fire, the life-force in all beings, and the austerity in ascetics.
7.11 I am the strength of the strong, free from craving — and the desire in beings that does not conflict with dharma.
7.15 The evildoer, the deluded, the lowest of men, those whose knowledge māyā has stolen — these do not take refuge in Me.
7.20 Wisdom stolen by desire: they worship other deities, following various rites, driven by their own nature.
7.22 With that faith, the devotee worships that deity and gains the desired objects — these being dispensed by Me alone.
7.24 The unwise regard Me — the unmanifest — as manifest, not knowing My supreme, imperishable, and unsurpassed state.
7.25 Veiled by yoga-māyā, I am not manifest to all — this deluded world does not recognize Me, the Unborn, the Imperishable.
7.26 I know all beings — past, present, and future, O Arjuna — but Me, none knows.
7.27 All beings fall into complete delusion at birth — through the dvandva-moha arising from desire and aversion.
9.1 I shall declare the most secret knowledge with realization to you who do not cavil — knowing it frees you from all evil.
9.2 Royal knowledge, royal secret — supreme purifier, directly known, easy to practice, of imperishable nature.
9.12 Of vain hopes, vain acts, vain knowledge, and senseless — they embrace the deluding nature of rākṣasas and asuras.
9.15 Others worship Me as one, as distinct, as manifold — through the jñāna-yajña of knowing the All-form.
9.24 I am the enjoyer and Lord of all sacrifices — but they do not know Me in truth, and so they fall.
10.3 Who knows Me as unborn, beginningless, Great Lord of worlds — that one is undeluded among mortals, freed from all sin.
10.4 Intellect, wisdom, patience, truth, calm, restraint, joy, pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness — all arise from Me.
10.10 To those ever-steadfast who worship Me with love — I give that yoga of wisdom by which they come to Me.
10.11 Out of compassion, I dwell in their hearts and destroy the darkness of ignorance with the luminous lamp of wisdom.
10.24 Among priests know Me as Bṛhaspati; among generals I am Skanda — and among waters, the ocean.
10.32 Of manifestations, the beginning, middle, and end; of knowledge, Self-knowledge; of disputants, Vāda.
10.38 Among rulers the rod; among conquerors, policy; among secrets, silence; and I am the knowledge of knowers.
11.1 My delusion is gone — dispersed by Your compassionate words on the Self and its deep mysteries.
12.12 Jñāna beats abhyāsa, dhyāna beats jñāna — but karma-phala-tyāga beats all; from tyāga, peace follows at once!
13.1 I wish to know prakṛti and puruṣa, the field and its knower, knowledge and the Knowable — O Keśava!
13.5 This has been sung by the rishis in many hymns, distinctly — and in brahma-sūtra passages, with clear reasoning!
13.8 Humility, non-pretension, non-injury, patience, uprightness, purity, steadiness, self-control — this is jñāna!
13.9 Dispassion toward sense-objects, no ego, and clearly seeing birth-death-age-disease as painful — this is jñāna!
13.10 Non-attachment + no identity-fusion with son/wife/home — and constant equanimity in good fortune and bad: this is jñāna.
13.11 Unswerving devotion to Krishna, love of solitude, aversion to crowds — these three close the 20 jñāna qualities!
13.12 Constant Self-enquiry + seeing the goal of true knowledge = THIS IS JÑĀNA; all else is ignorance.
13.16 Brahman: outside and inside all beings; unmoving yet moving; subtle beyond perception; far yet absolutely near.
13.17 One yet appearing divided in all; sustaining yet devouring; creating yet consuming — this is the Knowable.
13.19 The field, knowledge, and the Knowable stated — the devotee who grasps all three attains Krishna's own nature.
13.24 Whoever knows puruṣa and prakṛti with the guṇas — however they live — is never born again.
13.28 Who sees the Supreme Lord equally in all beings — the undying in the dying — TRULY sees.
14.1 Krishna reopens with the supreme jñāna above all knowledge — knowing which every muni has reached parāṃ siddhim.
14.2 Those who resort to this knowledge attain My own nature — neither reborn at creation nor disturbed at dissolution.
14.6 Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
14.8 Tamas — born of ignorance — deludes all beings and binds through carelessness, laziness, and sleep.
14.9 Sattva binds to happiness; rajas to action; tamas veils wisdom and chains to heedlessness.
14.10 Sattva, rajas, or tamas — each can become dominant over the others, alternating in every mind.
14.11 When intelligence-light shines through every sense-gate in this body — know that sattva is predominant.
14.13 Darkness, inertness, heedlessness, and delusion arise — know that tamas is predominant.
14.16 The fruit of sattvic action is pure; the fruit of rajas is pain; the fruit of tamas is ignorance.
14.17 Sattva begets wisdom; rajas begets greed; tamas begets heedlessness, delusion, and ignorance.
14.19 When the seer sees only guṇas as agents and knows what is beyond them — he attains My being.
14.20 Transcending the three guṇas, the embodied one is freed from birth-death-age-pain and attains immortality.
14.23 Sitting as a neutral — unmoved by guṇas, knowing 'guṇas act' — firm, unshaken, the pure witness.
15.1 Saṃsāra is an eternal inverted tree rooted in Brahman; knowing this tree root to tip is true Vedic wisdom.
15.4 After cutting the tree, seek the no-return abode — taking refuge in the Primordial Puruṣa, source of all.
15.10 The deluded see only the body's states — birth, life, experience; the jñāna-eyed see the jīva behind all three.
15.11 Striving yogins with refined selves see the jīva within; those unrefined, even striving, do not see it.
15.19 Knowing Me as Puruṣottama without delusion, one becomes all-knowing and worships Me with whole being.
16.4 Six āsurī qualities: dambha, darpa, abhimāna, krodha, pāruṣya, ajñāna — all rooted in ego-assertion and ignorance.
16.7 The āsurī know neither pravṛtti nor nivṛtti; purity, good conduct, and truth are all absent in them.
16.9 Holding that nihilistic view, ruined selves of limited mind and fierce action, they rise as enemies of the world.
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.
16.18 Taking refuge in ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha — they hate Me in their own bodies and in others.
17.13 Tāmasic yajña: against ordinance, no food-sharing, no mantras, no dakṣiṇā, no śraddhā — declared tāmasic.
17.15 Speech tapas: non-disturbing, true, agreeable, beneficial words — plus daily svādhyāya (sacred study).
17.16 Mental tapas: serenity of mind, kindliness, silence, self-restraint, and purity of motive/bhāva.
18.1 Arjuna asks: what is sannyāsa vs. tyāga? Tell me distinctly, O Mighty-armed, Hṛṣīkeśa, Keśi-slayer.
18.7 Renouncing ordained/niyata karma is not appropriate; its abandonment through delusion is declared tāmasic.
18.13 Learn these five causes of all action from Me, O Mighty-armed — as declared in the Sāṃkhya final teaching.
18.14 Five causes of action: body-locus, agent, various instruments, diverse efforts, and — fifth — the Divine/Fate.
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.
18.21 Rājasic jñāna: knowing all beings as various separate entities of distinct kinds — by the lens of separateness.
18.22 Tāmasic jñāna: irrationally attached to one thing as if it were all — without truth-object, trivial, declared tāmasic.
18.23 Sāttvic karma: prescribed, attachment-free, without rāga-dveṣa, by one not seeking fruit.
18.25 Tāmasic karma: begun from delusion, ignoring consequences, waste, injury to beings, and one's own capacity.
18.26 Sāttvic kartā: attachment-free, non-egotistic, firm, enthusiastic, unmoved by success or failure.
18.30 Sāttvic buddhi: correctly knows pravṛtti-nivṛtti, kārya-akārya, fear-fearlessness, bondage-liberation.
18.40 No being — neither on earth nor among the devas in heaven — is free from these three guṇas born of Prakṛti.
18.41 The duties of Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras are distributed by the guṇas born of their own nature.
18.42 Brāhmaṇa dharma: śama, dama, tapas, purity, forbearance, uprightness, knowledge, wisdom, faith — born of svabhāva.
18.43 Kṣatriya dharma: bravery, vigor, fortitude, skill, not-fleeing-battle, generosity, lordly bearing — born of svabhāva.
18.50 Learn briefly from Me how one who has attained siddhi attains Brahman — the supreme culmination of knowledge.
18.51 Endued with pure buddhi, regulating self with dhṛti, renouncing sense-objects, setting aside rāga-dveṣa —
18.52 Frequenting solitude, eating lightly, restraining speech-body-mind, always in dhyāna-yoga, fully in vairāgya —
18.70 Whoever studies this sacred dialogue — by him I shall have been worshipped by jñāna-yajña; such is My conviction.
18.71 Even one who only hears this with śraddhā and without malice is liberated and reaches the pure worlds of the righteous.
18.75 Through Vyāsa's grace, I heard this supreme secret Yoga directly from Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, speaking Himself.