Sharing a poem : The Bhagavad Gita (Books 1

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(From the version translated by Winthrop Sargeant. In Sanskrit and English, available here. The following copies the English translation of the verses)

BOOK 1 | The Despondency of Arjuna

Dhritarashtra spoke:

When they were in the field

of virtue, in the field of the Kurus,

Assembled together, desiring to fight,

What did my army and that of the

Sons of Pandu do, Sanjaya?

Sanjaya spoke:

Seeing indeed the army

Of the sons of Pandu arrayed,

King Duryodhana, approaching his

Master (Drona),

Spoke these words:

Behold O Master, this great army

Of the sons of Pandu

Arrayed by the son of Drupada,

Wise by your instruction.

Here are heroes, mighty archers,

Equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna,

Yuyudhana and Virata,

And Drupada, the great warrior;

Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana,

And the valorous King of Kashi,

Purojit and Kuntibhoja

And Shaibya, bull among men.

And mighty Yudhamanyu

And valorous uttamaujas;

The son of Subhadra and the sons of

Draupadi,

All indeed great warriors.

Those of ours who are indeed

distinguished,

Know them! O highest of the

Twiceborn,

The leaders of my army

I name for you by proper names:

Your Lordship and Bhishma and

Karna

and Kripa, always victorious in battle,

Ashvatthama and Vikarna

and the son of Somdatta also;

And many other heroes

whose lives are risked for my sake,

attacking with various weapons,

all skilled in battle.

Sufficient is that force of ours

Guarded by Bhishma;

Insufficient though is

The force guarded by Bhima.

And in all movements,

Stationed each in his respective place,

All of you, indeed,

Protect Bhishma!

Making him (Duryodhana) happy,

The aged Kuru, his grandsire,

Roaring like a lion,

Blew his conch horn powerfully.

And thereupon the conch horns and

the kettledrums,

The cymbals, drums and trumpets

All at once were sounded,

The uproar was tremendous.

Then, standing in the great chariot

Yoked with white horses,

Krishna and Arjuna

Sounded forth their divine conch

horns.

Krishna blew his Panchajanya;

Arjuna blew Devadatta,

While Bhima, trrrible in action,

Blew the great conch horn Paundra.

King Yudhishthira,

Son of Kunti, blew Anantavijaya;

Nakula and Sahadeva

Blew Sughosa and Manipushpaka.

And the King of Kashi, supreme

archer,

And Shikhandi, the great warrior,

Dhrishtadyumna and Virata

And Satyaki, the invincible;

Drupada and the sons of Draupadi

All togther, O Lord of the Earth

And the strong armed son of Subhadra

Blew their conch horns, each his own.

The noise burst asunder

The hearts of the sons of Dhritarashtra,
And the tumult caused

The sky and the earth to resound.

Then, Arjuna, having seen the sons of

Dhritarashtra

Drawn up in battle array,

Raised his bow as the clash of weapons (to begin perhaps) began.

Arjuna then spoke these words

to Krishna:

O Lord of the earth,

Cause my chariot to stand in the

middle

Between the two armies, Imperishable

One,

Until I behold these warriors,

Battle-hunger and arrayed.

With whom must I fight

In undertaking the battle?

I behold those who are about to give

battle,

Having come together here,

Wishing to do service in warfare

For the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra

(Duryodhana).

Thus Krishna was addressed by Arjuna,

O Dhritarashtra,

Having caused the chief chariot

To stand in the middle between the

two armies.

Before the eyes of Bhishma and Drona

And all these rulers of the earth,

Arjuna said: Behold these

Kurus assembled.

Arjuna saw standing there

Fathers, then grandfathers,

Teachers, maternal uncles, brothers,

Sons, grandsons, friends as well;

Arjuna saw fathers-in-law, companions,

In the two armies,

And contemplated

All his kinsmen, arrayed.

Filled with infinite pity,

Despondent, he said this:

Having seen my own people,

Krishna,

Desiring to fight, approaching,

My limbs sink down,

My mouth dries up,

My body trembles,

And my hair stands on end;

Gandiva (Arjuna's bow) falls from

(my) hand,

My skin burns,

I am unable to remain as I am,

And my mind seems to ramble.

I perceive inauspicious omens,

O Krishna,

And I foresee misfortune

In destroying my own people in battle.

I do not desire victory, Krishna,

Nor kingship nor pleasures.

What is kingship to us, Krishna?

What are enjoyments, even life?

Those for whose sake we desire

Kingship, enjoyments, and pleasures,

They are arrayed here in battle,

Abandoning their lives and riches.

Teachers, fathers, sons,

And also grandfathers,

Maternal uncles, fathers-in-law,

grandsons,

Brothers-in-law, and other kinsmen.

I do not desire to kill

Them who are bent on killing,

Krishna,

Even for the sovereignty of the three

worlds.

How much less then for the earth?

What joy would it be for us

To strike down the sons of

Dhritarashtra, O Krishna?

Evil thus would clong to us,

Having killed these aggressors.

Therefore we are not justified in

killing

The sons of Dhritarashtra, our own

kinsmen.

How, having killed our own people,

Could we be happy, Krishna?

Even if those

Whose thoughts are overpowered

by greed do not perceive

The wrong caused by the destruction

of the family,

And the crime of treachery to friends.

Why should we not know enough

To turn back from this evil,

Through discernment of the wrong

caused

By the destruction of the family,

O Krishna?

In the destruction of the family,

The ancient family laws vanish;

When the law has perished,

Lawlessness overpowers the entire

family also.

Because of the ascendancy of

lawlessness, Krishna,

The family women are corrupted;

When women are corrupted,

O Krishna,

The intermixture of caste is born.

Intermixture brings to hell

The family destroyers and the

family, too;

The ancestors of these indeed fall,

Deprived of offerings of rice and water.

By these wrongs of the family

destroyers,

Producing intermixture of caste,

Caste duties are abolished,

And eternal family laws also.

Men whose family laws have been

obliterated,

O Krishna,

Dwell indefinitely in hell,

Thus we have heard repeatedly,

Ah! Alas! We are resolved

To do a great evil,

Which is to be intent on killing

Our own people, through greed for

royal pleasures.

If the armed sons of Dhritarashtra

Should kill me in battle

While I was unresisting and unarmed,

This would be a greater

happiness for me.

Thus having spoken on the battlefield,

Arjuna sat down upon the seat of the

chariot,

Throwing down both arrow and bow,

With a heart overcome by sorrow.

* * *

BOOK 2 | The Yoga of Knowledge

Sanjaya spoke:

To him thus overcome by pity,

despairing,

Whose eyes were filled with tears and

downcast,

Krishna spoke these words:

The Blessed Lord spoke:

Whence has this timidity of yours

Come to you in time of danger?

It is not acceptable in you, does not

lead to heaven,

And causes disgrace, Arjuna.

Do not become a coward, Arjuna.

This is not suitable to you.
Abandoning base faintheartedness

Stand up, Arjuna!

Arjuna spoke:

How can I kill in battle

Bhishma and Drona, O Krishna?

How can I fight with arrows against

These two venerable men, O Krishna?

Indeed, instead of slaying these noble

gurus

It would be preferable to live on

alms here on earth;

Having slain the gurus, with desire for

worldly gain,

I would enjoy here on earth delights

smeared with blood.

And this we do not know: which for

us is preferable,

Whether we should conquer them or

they should conquer us.

The sons of Dhritarashtra, having

killed whom we would not wish

to live,

Are standing before us.

My own being is overcome by

pity and weakness.

My mind is confused as to my

duty. I ask you

Which is preferable, for certain?

Tell that to me, your pupil. Correct me,

I beg you.

Indeed, I do not see what will

dispel

This sorrow of mine which dries up

my senses,

Even if I should obtain on earth

unrivaled and

Prosperous royal power, or even the

sovereignty of the gods.

Sanjaya spoke:

Thus having addressed Krishna,

Arjuna said,

"I shall not fight,"

And having spoken, he became silent.

To him, the dejected Arjuna, Krishna,

Beginning to laugh, O Dhritarashtra,

In the middle between the two armies,

Spoke these words:

The Blessed Lord spoke:

You have mourned those that should

not be mourned,

And you speak words as if with

wisdom;

The wise do not mourn for the dead

or for the living.

Truly there was never a time when

I was not,

Nor you, nor these lords of men;

And neither will there be a time when

we shall cease to be

From this time onward.

Just as in the body childhood,

adulthood, and old age

Happen to an embodied being,

So also he (the embodied being) acquires

another body.

The wise one is not deluded about this.

Physical sensations, truly, Arjuna,

Causing cold, heat, pleasure, or pain,

Come and go and are impermanent.

So manage to endure them, Arjuna.

Indeed, the man whom these (i.e. the

sensations) do not afflict,

O Arjuna,

The wise one, to whom happiness and

unhappiness are the same,

Is ready for immortality.

It is found that the unreal has no being;

It is found that there is no non-being

of the real.

The certainty of both these

propositions is indeed surely seen

By the perceivers of truth.

Know that that by which all this

universe.

Is pervaded is indeed indestructible;

No one is able to accomplish

The destruction of the imperishable.

These bodies inhabited by the eternal,

The indestructible, the immeasurable

embodied Self,

Are said to come to an end.

Therefore fight, Arjuna!

He who imagines this (the embodied

Self) the slayer

And he who imagined this

(the embodied Self) the slain,

Neither of them understands

This (the embodied Self) does not slay,

nor is it slain.

Neither is this (the embodied Self)

born nor does it die at any time,

Nor, having been, will it again come

not to be.

Birthless, eternal, perpetual,

primaeval,

It is not slain when the body is slain.

He who knows this, the indestructible,

the eternal,

The birthless, the imperishable,

In what way does this man cause to

be slain, Arjuna?

Whom does he slay?

As, after casting away worn out

garments,

A man later takes new ones,

So, after casting away worn out bodies,

The embodied Self encounters other,

new ones.

Weapons do not pierce this (the

embodied Self),

Fire does not burn this,

Water does not wet this,

Nor does the wind cause it to wither.

This cannot be pierced, burned,

Wetted or withered;

This is eternal, all pervading, fixed;

This is unmoving and primeval.

It is said that this unmanifest,

Unthinkable, and unchanging.

Therefore, having understood

in whis way,

You should not mourn.

And moreover even if you think

this

To be eternally born or eternally

dead,

Even then

You should not mourn for this, Arjuna.

For the born, death is certain;

For the dead there is certainly birth.

Therefore, for this, inevitable in

consequence,

You should not mourn.

Beings are such that their beginnings

are unmanifest,

Their middles are manifest,

And their ends are unmanifest again.

What complaint can there be over

this?

Someone perceives this as a wonder,

Another declares this as a wonder,

Still another hears of this as a wonder;

But even having heard of this, no one

knows it.

This, the embodied Self, is eternally

indestructible

In the body of all, Arjuna.

Therefore you should not mourn

For any being.

And, perceiving your own caste

duty,

You should not tremble.

Indeed, anything superior to righteous

battle

Does not exist for the kshatriya

(man of warrior caste).

And if by good fortune they gain

The open gate of heaven,

Happy are the kshatriyas, Arjuna,

When they encounter such a fight.

Now, if you will not undertake

This righteous war,

Thereupon, having avoided your own

duty and glory,

You shall incur evil.

And also people will relate

Your undying infamy;

And, for one who has been honored,

Disgrace is worse than dying.

The great warriors will think

That you have abstained from the battle

through fear,

And among those by whom you have

been held in high esteem

You shall come to be held lightly.

And your enemies will speak

many words of you that should not be

spoken,

deriding your capacity.

What greater hardship is there than that?

Either, having been slain, you shall

attain heaven,

Or, having conquered, you shall enjoy

the earth.

Therefore stand up, Arjuna,

Resolved to fight.

Holding pleasure and pain to be alike,

Likewise gain and loss, victory and

defeat,

Then engage in battle!

Thus you shall not incur evil.

This (insidght) is wisdom, as declared

in the theory of Sankhya;

Now hear it as applied in arduous

practice;

Yoked with this determination, Arjuna,

You shall rid yourself of the bondage

of karma.

Here (in the yoga doctrine of practice)

no effort is lost,

Nor is any loss of progress found.

Even a little of this discipline

Protects one from great danger.

Here there is a single resolute

understanding, Arjuna.

The thoughts of the irresolute

Have many branches and are, indeed,

endless.

The ignorant ones proclaim

This flowery discourse, Arjuna,

Delighting in the letter of the Veda,

And saying, "There is nothing else."

Full of desires, intent on

heaven,

They offer rebirth as the fruit of action,

And are addicted to many specific rites

Aimed at the goal of enjoyment and

power.

To those (the ignorant ones) attached

to enjoyment and power,

Whose thought is stolen away by this

kind of talk,

Resolute insght

In meditation is not granted.

The Vedas are such that their scope is

confined to the three qualities;

Be free from those three qualities,

Arjuna,

Indifferent toward the pairs of

opposites, eternally fixed in truth,

Free from thoughts of acquisition

and comfort, possessed of the Self.

As much value as there is in a well

When water is flooding on every side,

So much is the value in a all the Vedas

For a brahman who knows.

Your right is to action alone;

Never to its fruits at any time.

Never should the fruits of action be

your motive;

Never let there be attachment

to inaction in you.

Fixed in yoga, perform actions,

Having abandoned attachment,

Arjuna,

And having become indifferent to success

or failure.

It is said that evenness of mind is yoga.

Action is inferior by far

To the yoga of wisdom, Arjuna.

Seek refuge in wisdom!

Despicable are those whose motives

are based on the fruit of action.

He whose wisdom is established

Casts off, here in the world, both good

and evil actions;

Therefore devote yourself to yoga!

Yoga is skill in action.

Those who are established in wisdom,

The wise ones, who have abandones

the fruit born of action,

And are freed from the bondages of

rebirth,

Go to the place that is free from pain.

When your intellect crosses

beyond

The thicket of delusion, then you

shall become disgusted

With that which is yet to be heard

And with that which has been heard

(in the Veda).

When your intellect stands

fixed in deep meditation, unmoving

disregarding Vedic doctrine,

then you shall attain Self-realization.

Arjuna spoke:

How does one describe him who is

of steady wisdom,

Who is steadfast in deep meditation,

Krishna?

How does he who is steady in

wisdom speak?

How does he sit? How does he

move?

The Blessed Lord spoke:

When he leaves behind all desires

Emerging from the mind, Arjuna,

And is contented in the Self by the Self,

Then he is said to be one whose

wisdom is steady.

He whose mind is not agitated in

misfortune,

Whose desire for pleasure has

disappeared,

Whose passion, fear, and anger have

departed,

And whose meditation is steady, is said to

be a sage.

He who is without attachment on all sides,

Encountering this or that, pleasant or

unpleasant,

Neither rejoicing nor disliking;

His wisdom stands firm.

And when he withdraws completely

The senses from the objects of the

senses,

As a tortoise withdraws its limbs

into its shell,

His wisdom stands firm.

Sense objects turn away from

the abstinent man,

But the taste of them remains;

But the taste also turns away

From him who has seen the

Supreme.

The turbulent senses

Carrry away forcibly

The mind, Arjuna,

Even of the striving man of wisdom.

Restraining all these senses,

Disciplined, he should sit, intent on

Me;

He whose senses are controlled,

His wisdom stands firm.

For a man dwelling on the objects of

the senses,

An attachment to them is born;

From attachment, desire is botn;

From desire, anger is born;

From anger arises delusion;

From delusion, loss of the

memory;

From loss of the memory, destruction

of discrimination;

From destruction of discrimination

one is lost.

With the elimination of desire and

hatred,

Even though moving among the objects of

the senses,

He who is controlled by the Self,

By self-restraint, attains tranquility.

In tranquility the cessation of all

sorrows

Is born for him.

Indeed, for the tranquil-minded

The intellect at once becomes

steady.

There is no wisdom in

him who is uncontrolled,

And there is likewise no concentration

in him who is uncontrolled,

And in him who does not concentrate,

there is no peace.

How can there be happiness for him

who is not peaceful?

When the mind runs

After the wandering senses,

Then it carries away one's

understanding,

As the wind carries away a ship on

the waters.

Therefore, O Arjuna,

The wisdom of him whose senses

Are withdrawn from the objects of the

senses;

That wisdom stands firm.

The man of restraint is awake

In that which is night for all beings;

The time in which all beings are

awake

Is night for the sage who sees.

Like the ocean, which becomes filled

yet remains unmoved and stands still

As the waters enter it,

He whom all desures enter and who

remains unmoved

Attains peace; not so the main who is

full of desire.

The man who abandons all desires

Acts free from longing.

Indifferent to possessions, free from

egoticism,

He attains peace.

This is the divine state, Arjuna.

Having attained this, he is not

deluded;

Fixed in it, even at the hour of death,

He reaches the bliss of God.

* * *

BOOK 3 | The Yoga of Action

Arjuna spoke:

If it is Your convixtion that knowledge

Is better than action, O Krishna,

Then why do You urge me to engage

in this terrible action?

With speech that seems equivocal,

You confuse my intelligence.

Tell me surely this one thing:

How should I attain the highest good?

The Blessed Lord spoke;

In this world there is a two-fold basis

(of devotion)

Taught since ancient times by Me,

O Arjuna:

That of knowledge - the yoga of the

followers of Sankhya

And that of action - the yoga of the

yogins.

Not by abstentation from actions

Does a man attain the state beyond

karma,

And not by renunciation alone

Does he approach perfection.

Indeed, no one, even in the twinkling

of an eye,

Ever exists without performing action;

Everyone is forced to perform action,

even action which is against his

will,

By the qualities which originate in

material nature.

He who sits, restraining his organs of

action,

While in his mind brooding over

The objects of the senses, with a

deluded mind,

Is said to be a hypocrite.

Bue he who undertakes the control

of the senses by the mind, Arjuna,

and, without attachment, engages the

organs of action

in the yoga of action, is superior.

Perform your duty,

For action is indeed better than

nonaction,

And even the mere maintenance of

your body

Could not be accomplished without

action.

Aside from action for the purpose of

sacrifice,

The world is bound by action.

Perform action for the purpose of

sacrifice, Arjuna,

Free from attachment.

Having created manking along with

sacrifice,

Prajapati (the Lord of Creatures)

anciently said,

"By this (i.i. sacrifice), may you bring

forth;

May this be your wishfulfilling cow."

"By this (i.e. sacrifice) may you

nourish the gods

and may the gods nourish you;

by nourishing each other,

you shall attain the highest welfare."

"The gods, nourished by the

sacrifice,

Will indeed give you desired enjoyments;

He who enjoys these gifsts while not

offering to them in return,

Is a thief."

The good, who eat the remainder

of the sacrifice,

Are released from all evils;

But the wicked, who cook only for

their own sake,

Eat their own impurity.

Beings exist from food,

Food is brought into being by rain,

Rain from sacrifice,

And sacrifice is brought into being by

action.

Know that ritual action originates in

Brahman (the Vedas)

And Brahman arises from the

Impersihable;

Therefore the all-pervading Brahman

Is eternally established in sacrifice.

He who does, here on earth,

Turns the wheel thus set in motion,

Lives, Arjuna,

Maliciously, full of sense delights, and in

vain.

He whose delight is only in the Self,

Whose satisfaction is in the Self,

And who is content only in the Self;

For him the need to act does not exist.

He has no purpose at all in action.

Or in non-action,

And he has no need of any being

For any purpose whatsoever.

Therefore, constantly unattached,

Perform that action which is your duty.

Indeed, by performing action while

unattached,

Man attains the Supreme.

Perfection was attained by kings like

Janaka

With action alone

For the mere maintenance of the world,

You should act.

Whatever the greatest man does,

Thus do the rest;

Whatever standard he sets,

The world follows that.

For Me, O Arjuna, there is nothing

whatever

To be done in the three worlds,

Nor is there anything not attained

to be attained.

Nevertheless I engage in action.

Indeed, if I, unwearied, should not

engage

In action at all,

Mankind would follow

My path everywhere, O Arjuna.

If I did not perform action,

These worlds would perish

And I would be the cause of confusion;

I would destroy these creatures.

While those who are unwise act

From attachment to action, O Arjuna,

So the wise should act without

attachment,

Intending to maintain the welfare

of the world.

One should not unsettle the minds of

The ignorant who are attached to action;

The wise one should cause them to

enjoy all actions;

While himself performing actions in

a disciplined manner.

Actions in all cases are performed

By the qualities of material nature;

He whose mind is confused by egoism

Imagines, "I am the doer."

But he who knows the truth, O Arjuna,

About the two roles of the qualities

and action, thinking,

"The qualities work among the qualities,"

Is not attached.

Those deluded by the qualities of

material nature

Are attached to the actions of the qualities.

The perfect knower should not

disturb

The foolish men of incomplete knoweldge.

Deferring all actions in Me,

Meditating on the supreme Spirit,

Having become free from desire

and selfishness,

With your fever departed, fight!

Men who constantly practice

This teaching of Mine,

Believing, not sneering,

Are also released from the bondage of

actions.

But those who, sneering at this,

Do not practice My teaching,

Confusing all wisdom,

Know them to be lost and mindless.

One acts according to one's own

material nature.

Even the wise man does so.

Beings follow their own material

nature;

What will restraint accomplish?

Passion and hatred are seated

In the senses in relation to their objects.

One should not come under the power

of these two;

They are indeed one's enemies.

Better one's own duty though deficient

Than the duty of another well performed.

Better is death in one's own duty;

The duty of another invites danger.

Arjuna spoke:

Then impelled, by what

Does a man commit this evil,

Unwillingly even, O Krishna,

As if urged by force?

The Blessed Lord spoke:

This force is desire, this force is anger;

Its source is the rajas guna.

Voracious and greatly injurious,

Know this to be the enemy.

As fire is obscured by smoke,

And a mirror by dust,

As the embryo is enveloped by the

membrane,

So the intellect is obscured by passion.

O Arjuna, the knoweldge even of the

wise ones is obscured

By this eternal enemy,

Having the form of desire

Which is as insatiable fire.

The senses, the mind and the intellect

Are said to be its (i.e. the eternal

enemy's) abode;

With these, it confuses the embodied

one,

Obscuring his knowledge.

Therefore, restraining the senses

First, O Arjuna,

Kill this evil demon

Which destroys knowledge and

discrimination.

They say that the senses are superior.

The mind is superior to the senses;

Moreover, the intellect is superior

to the mind;

That which is superior to the intellect

is the Self.

Thus having known that which is

higher than the intellect,

Sustaining the self by the Self,

Kill the enemy, O Arjuna,

Which has the form of desire and is

difficult to conquer.

* * *

BOOK 4 | The Yoga of Renunciation of Action in Knowledge

The Blessed Lord spoke:

I proclaimed this imperishable yoga

to Vivasvat;

Vivasavt communicated it to Manu,

And Manu imparted it to Ikshvaku.

Thus received by succession,

The royal seers know this;

After a long time here on earth,

This yoga has been lost, Arjuna.

This ancient yoga is today

Declared by Me to you,

Since you are my devotee and

friend.

This secret is supreme indeed.

Arjuna spoke:

Your birth was later,

The birth of Vivasvat earlier;

How should I understand this,

That you declared it in the

beginning?

The Blessed Lord spoke:

Many of My births have passed away,

And also yours, Arjuna.

I know them all;

You do noy know them,

Arjuna.

Although I am birthless and My nature

is imperishable,

Although I am the Lord of all beings,

Yet, by controlling My own material

nature,

I come into being by My own power.

Whenever a decrease of righteousness

Exists, Arjuna,

And there is rising up on

unrighteousness,

Then I manifest Myself.

For the protection of the good

And the destruction of evil doers,

For the sake of establishing

righteousness,

I am born in every age.

He who knows in truth

My divine birth and action,

Having left his body, he is

Not reborn; he comes to Me, Arjuna.

Thinking solely of Me, resorting to Me,

Many whose greed, fear, and anger

have departed,

Purified by the austerity of knowledge,

Have attained My state of being.

In whatever way,

Men take refuge in Me, I reward them.

Men everywhere, Arjuna,

Follow My path.

Desiring the success of ritual acts,

Men sacrifice here on earth to the

Vedic gods.

Quickly indeed in the world of men

Ritual acts bring success.

The system of four castes was created

by Me,

According to the distribution of the

qualities and their acts.

Although I am the creator of this (the

system),

Know Me to be the eternal non-doer.

Actions do not taint Me;

I have no desire for the fruit of action;

Thus he who comprehends Me

Is not bound by actions.

Having known this, the ancients,

Seeking release, also performed action.

Therefore perform action

As it was earlier performed by the

ancients.

"What is action? What is inaction?"

Thus, even the wise are confused

in this matter.

This action I shall explain to you,

Having known which, you shall be

released from evil.

One must know the nature of action,

The nature of wrong action,

And also the nature of inaction.

The way of action is profound.

He who perceives inaction in action,

And action in inaction,

Is wise among men;

He is a yogi and perform all actions.

He who has excluded desire and

motive

From all his enterprises,

And has consumed his karma in the

fire of knowledge,

Him the wise men call a sage.

He who has abandoned all attachment

to the fruits of action,

Always content, not dependent,

Even when performing action,

Does, in effect, nothing at all.

Performing action with the body alone,

Without wish, restrained in thought

and self,

With all motives of acquisiton

abandoned,

He incurs no evil.

Content with whatever comes to him,

Transcending the dualities (i.e. pleasure,

pain, etc,), free from envy,

Constant in mind whether in success

or in failure,

Even though he acts, he is not bound.

The work of one who is free from

attachment, who is liberated,

Whose thought is established in

knowledge,

Who does work only as a sacrifice,

Is wholly dissolved.

Brahman is the offering, Brahman is

the oblation

Poured out by Brahman into the fire of

Brahman,

Brahman is to be attained by him

Who always sees Brahman in action.

Some yogins perform

Sacrifice to the gods;

Others offer sacrifice,

By sacrifice itself, in the fire of

Brahman.

Others offer senses like hearing

In the fire of restraint;

Still others offer sound and other

objects of the senses

In the fire of the senses.

Others offer all actions of the senses

And actions of the vital breath

In the fire of the yoga of self-restraint

Which is kindled by knowledge.

Some offer as sacrifice their

material possessions

Or their austerities and practice

of yoga,

While ascetics of severe vows

Offer study of the scriptures

and knowledge as sacrifice.

Some offer inhalation into exhalation,

And others exhalation into inhalation,

Restraining the path of inhalation and

exhalation,

Intent on control of the vital breath.

Others who have restricted their foods

Offer the life breath into the life breath;

All these are knowers of sacrifice,

And their evils have been destroyed

through sacrifice.

The enjoyers of the nectar of the

sacrificial remnants

Go to primeval Brahman.

Not even this world is for the

non-sacrificing;

How then the other, Arjuna?

Thus sacrifices are of many kinds,

Spread out before Brahman.

Know them all to be born of action.

Thus knowing, you shall be released.

Better than the sacrifice of material

possessions

Is the wisdom sacrifice, Arjuna;

All actions without exception, Arjuna,

Is fully comprehended in wisdom.

Know this! Through humble

submission,

Through enquiry, through service (on

your own part),

The knowing ones, the perceivers of

truth,

Will be led to teach you knowledge.

Knowing that, you shall not again

Fall into delusion, Arjuna;

And by that knowledge you shall

see all beings

In yourself, and also in Me.

Even if you were the most evil

Of all evildoers,

You would cross over all wickedness

By the boat of knowledge.

As the kindled fire

Reduces firewood to ashes, Arjuna,

So the fire of knowledge

Reduces all action to ashes.

No purifier equal to knowledge

Is found here in the world;

He who is himself perfected in yoga

In time finds that knowledge in the

Self.

He who possesses faith attains

knowledge;

Devoted to that (knowledge),

restraining his senses,

Having attained knowledge, he quickly

attains

Supreme peace.

The man who is ignorant, and

does not have faith,

Who is of a doubting nature, is

destroyed.

Neither this world nor that beyond,

Nor happiness, is for him who

doubts.

Action does not bind him

Who has renounced action through

yoga,

Whose doubt is cut away by knowledge,

And who is possessed of the Self,

Arjuna.

Therefore, having cut away, with your

own sword of knowledge,

This doubt that proceeds from

ignorance and abides in your heart,

Resort to yoga!

Stand up, Arjuna.

* * *

BOOK 5 | The Yoga of Renunciation

Arjuna spoke:

You praise renunciation of actions,

And again You praise yoga, Krishna.

Which one is the better of these two?

Tell this to me definitely.

Teh Blessed Lord spoke:

Both renunciation and the yoga of

action

Lead to incomprable bliss;

Of the two, however, the yoga of

action

Is superior to the renunciation of

action.

He is to be known as the eternal

sannyasi

Who neither hates nor desires,

Who is indifferent to the pairs of

opposites, O Arjuna.

He is easily liberated from bondage.

"Sankhya and yoga are different,"

The childish declare; not the wise.

Even with one of them, practiced

correctly,

One finds the fruit of both.

The place that is attained by the

followers of Sankhya

Is also attained by the followers of

yoga.

Sankhya and yoga are one.

He who perceives this, truly perceives.

Renunciation indeed, O Arjuna,

Is difficult to attain without yoga;

The sage who is disciplined in yoga

Quickly attains Brahman.

He who is devoted to yoga, whose self is

purified,

Whose self is subdued, whose senses

are conquered,

Whose self has become

the self of all beings,

Is not tainted even when acting.

"I do not do anything," thus,

Steadfast in yoga, the knower of truth

should think,

Whether seeing, hearing, touching,

smelling,

Eating, walking, sleeping, breathing.

Talking, excreting, grasping,

Opening the eyes and shutting the

eyes,

Believing

"The senses abide in the objects of the

senses."

Offering his actions to Brahman,

Having abandoned attachment,

He who acts is not tainted by evil

Any more than a lotus leaf by water.

With the body, with the mind, with

the intellect,

Even merely with the senses,

The yogins perform action toward

self-purification,

Having abandoned attachment.

He who is disciplined in yoga, having

abandoned the fruit of action,

Attains steady peace;

The undisciplined one, attached to

fruit,

Is bound by actions prompted by

desire.

Renouncing all actions with his mind,

The embodied one sits happily, as the

ruler

Within the city of nine gates,

Not acting at all, nor causing action.

The Lord does not create

Either the agency (the means of

action) or the actions of the people,

Ot the union of action with its fruit.

Nature, on the other hand, proceeds

(in all this).

The Lord does not receive

Either the evil or the good deeds of

anyone.

Knowledge is enveloped by ignorance.

By it (ignorance) people are deluded.

But for those in whom in this ignorance

of the Self

Is destroyed by knowledge,

That knowledge of theirs

Causes the Supreme to shine like the sun.

They whose minds are absorbed in

that (i.e. the Supreme),

Whose selves are fixed on that,

Whose basis is that, who hold that as

the highest object,

Whose evils have been shaken off by

knowledge, go to the end of rebirth.

The wise see the same (Atman)

In a brahman endowed with wisdom

and cultivation,

In a cow, in an elephant,

And even in a dog or an outcaste.

Even here on earth, rebirth is

conquered

By those whose mind is established in

impartiality.

Brahman is spotless and impartial;

Therefore they are established in

Brahman.

One should not rejoice upon attaining

what is pleasant,

Nor should one shudder upon

encountering what is unpleasant;

With firm intellect, undeluded,

Knowing Brahman, one is established

in Brahman.

He whose self is unattached to external

sensations,

Who finds happiness in the Self,

Whose Self is united with Brahman

through yoga,

Reaches imperishable happiness.

Pleasures born of contact, indeed,

Are wombs (i.e. sources) of pain,

Since they have a beginning and an

end (i.e. are not eternal), Arjuna.

The wise man is content with them.

He who is able to endure here on

earth,

Before liberation from the body,

The agitation that arises from desires

and anger,

Is disciplined; he is a happy man.

He who finds his happiness within,

his delights within,

And his light within,

This yogin attains the bliss of

Brahman, becoming Brahman.

The seers, whose evils have been

destroyed,

Whose doubts have been cut away,

whose selves are restrained,

Who delight in the welfare of all

being,

Attain the bliss of Brahman.

To those ascetics who have cast aside

desire and anger,

Whose thought is controlled,
Who are knowers of the Self,

The bliss of Brahman exists everywhere.

Expelling outside contacts

And fixing the gaze between the two

eyebrows,

Equalizing the inhalation and exhalation,

Moving within the nostrils,

The sage whose highest aim is release;

Whose senses, mind and intellect

are controlled;

From whom desire, fear and anger

have departed,

Is forever liberated.

Having known Me, the enjoyer of

sacrifices and austerities,

The mighty Lord of all the world,

The friend of all creatures,

He (the sage) attains peace.

* * *

Books 1 - 5: Here

Books 6 -10: Here

Books 11 -14: Here

Books 15 -18: Here

The Bhagavad Gita (Books 1 - 5)