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It cannot be pierced or singed, moistened or withered; it is vast, perfect and all-pervading, calm, immovable, timeless.
On this path no effort is wasted, no gain is ever reversed; even a little of this practice will shelter you from great sorrow. Resolute understanding is single-pointed, Arjuna; but the thoughts of the irresolute are many-branched and endless.
The scriptures dwell in duality. Be beyond all opposites, Arjuna: anchored in the real, and free from all thoughts of wealth and comfort. As unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth. You have a right to your actions, but never to your actions’ fruits. Act for the action’s sake. And do not be attached to inaction. [2.48–52] Self-possessed, resolute, act without any thought of results, open to success or failure. This equanimity is yoga.
The man whom desires enter as rivers flow into the sea, filled yet always unmoving— that man finds perfect peace. Abandoning all desires, acting without craving, free from all thoughts of “I” and “mine,” that man finds utter peace.
But the man who delights in the Self, who feels pure contentment and finds perfect peace in the Self— for him, there is no need to act. He has nothing to achieve by action, nothing to gain by inaction, nor does he depend on any person outside himself.
Though the unwise cling to their actions, watching for results, the wise are free of attachments, and act for the well-being of the whole world.
It is better to do your own duty badly, than to perfectly do another’s; you are safe from harm when you do what you should be doing.
act, surrendering the fruits of action.
With no desire for success, no anxiety about failure, indifferent to results, he burns up his actions in the fire of wisdom.
They do not rejoice in good fortune; they do not lament at bad fortune; lucid, with minds unshaken, they remain within what is real. A man unattached to sensations, who finds fulfillment in the Self, whose mind has become pure freedom, attains an imperishable joy. Pleasures from external objects are wombs of suffering, Arjuna. They have their beginnings and their ends; no wise man seeks joy among them.
The mature man, fulfilled in wisdom, resolute, looks with equal detachment at a lump of dirt, a rock, or a piece of pure gold.
The man of yoga should practice concentration, alone, mastering mind and body, free of possessions and desires. Sitting down, having chosen a spot that is neither too high nor too low, that is clean and covered with a grass mat, a deerskin, and a cloth, he should concentrate, with his whole mind, on a single object; if he practices in this way, his mind will soon become pure.
When his mind has become serene by the practice of meditation, he sees the Self through the self and rests in the Self, rejoicing. He knows the infinite joy that is reached by the understanding beyond the senses; steadfast, he does not fall back from the truth.
This is true yoga: the unbinding of the bonds of sorrow.
that man will be born again to parents who are upright and wealthy. He may even be born to parents who have practiced yoga and are wise, though a birth as fortunate as this is more difficult to obtain.
If a thousand suns were to rise and stand in the noon sky, blazing, such brilliance would be like the fierce brilliance of that mighty Self.
Knowledge is better than practice; meditation is better than knowledge; and best of all is surrender, which soon brings peace.
The three gunas, born of Nature— sattva, rajas, and tamas— bind to the mortal body the deathless embodied Self. Of these three, sattva, untainted, luminous, free from sorrow, binds by means of attachment to knowledge and joy, Arjuna. Rajas is marked by passion born of craving and attachment; it binds the embodied Self to never-ending activity. Tamas, ignorance-born, deludes all embodied beings; it binds them, Arjuna, by means of dullness, indolence, and sleep. [14.9–13] Sattva causes attachment to joy, rajas to action, and tamas, obscuring knowledge, attaches beings to dullness. Sattva
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How can I recognize the man who has gone beyond the three gunas? What has he done to go beyond them? How does he act? THE BLESSED LORD SAID: Whatever quality arises— light, activity, delusion— he neither dislikes its presence nor desires it when it is not there.
He who is unattached, who is not disturbed by the gunas, who is firmly rooted and knows that only the gunas are acting, who is equally self-contained in pain or pleasure, in happiness or sorrow, who is content with whatever happens, who sees dirt, rocks, and gold as equal, who is unperturbed amid praise or blame of himself, indifferent to honor and to disgrace, serene in success and failure, impartial to friend and foe, unattached to action—that man has gone beyond the three gunas.
THE BLESSED LORD SAID: Fearlessness, purity of heart, persistence in the yoga of knowledge, generosity, self-control, nonviolence, gentleness, candor, integrity, disengagement, joy in the study of the scriptures, compassion for all beings, modesty, patience, a tranquil mind, [16.3–7] dignity, kindness, courage, a benevolent, loving heart— these are the qualities of men born with divine traits, Arjuna.
“Today I got this desire, and tomorrow I will get that one; all these riches are mine, and soon I will have even more.
Bewildered by endless thinking, entangled in the net of delusion, addicted to desire, they plunge into the foulest of hells.
Through all the cycles of birth and death, I hurl these depraved, cruel, and hate-filled men into demonic wombs. Trapped in demonic wombs, deluded in birth after birth, they never reach me, Arjuna, but sink to the lowest state.
Maturity of worship or control or charity is also called Sat, as is all unselfish action that leads to any of the three.
But worship, control, or charity offered without faith, Arjuna, is called Asat, “unreal,” and is worthless, in this world or the next.
ARJUNA SAID: Teach me this lesson, Krishna: what it means to renounce, what it means to relinquish, and the difference between the two. THE BLESSED LORD SAID: To give up desire-bound actions is what is meant by renouncing; to give up the results of all actions is what the wise call to relinquish.
An agent who is free from attachment and the I-sense, courageous, steadfast, unmoved by success or failure— this kind of agent is sattvic. A rajasic agent is impulsive, seeks to obtain results, is greedy, violent, impure, and buffeted by joy and sorrow. An agent is called tamasic when he is undisciplined, stupid, stubborn, mean, deceitful, lazy, and easily depressed.
Now, Arjuna, I will tell you about the three kinds of happiness. The happiness which comes from long practice, which leads to the end of suffering, which at first is like poison, but at last like nectar—this kind of happiness, arising from the serenity of one’s own mind, is called sattvic. Rajasic happiness comes from contact between the senses and their objects, and is at first like nectar, but at last like poison. [18.39–43] Happiness is called tamasic when it is self-deluding from beginning to end, and arises from sleep, indolence, and dullness.
With a purified understanding, fully mastering himself, relinquishing all sense-objects, released from aversion and craving, solitary, eating lightly, controlling speech, mind, and body, absorbed in deep meditation at all times, calm, impartial, free from the “I” and “mine,” from aggression, arrogance, greed, desire, and anger, he is fit for the state of absolute freedom.
Whoever earnestly studies this sacred discourse of ours— I consider that he has worshiped and loved me with the yoga of knowledge. Even the man who hears it with faith and an open mind— he also, released, will go to the joyous heavens of the pure.
The object of the Gita appears to me to be that of showing the most excellent way to attain self-realization. That which is to be found, more or less clearly, spread out here and there in Hindu religious books, has been brought out in the clearest possible language in the Gita, even at the risk of repetition. That matchless remedy is renunciation of the fruits of action.
This is the unmistakable teaching of the Gita. He who gives up action, falls. He who gives up only the reward, rises.
The deeper you dive into it, the richer the meanings you get. Since it is meant for the people at large, there is pleasing repetition. With every age the important words will carry new and expanding meanings. But its central teaching will never vary.
