Bhagavad Gita

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The Yoga of Knowledge

Arjuna:

Krishna, how can one identify a man who is firmly established and absorbed in Brahman? In what manner does an illumined soul speak? How does he sit? How does he walk?

Sri Krishna:

He knows bliss in the Atman

And wants nothing else.

Cravings torment the heart:

He renounces cravings.

I call him illumined.

Not shaken by adversity,

Not hankering after happiness:

Free from fear, free from anger,

Free from the things of desire.

I call him a seer, and illumined.

The bonds of his flesh are broken.

He is lucky, and does not rejoice:

He is unlucky, and does not weep.

I call him illumined.

The tortoise can draw in its legs:

The seer can draw in his senses.

I call him illumined.

The abstinent run away from what they desire

But carry their desires with them:

When a man enters Reality,

He leaves his desires behind him.

Even a mind that knows the path

Can be dragged from the path:

The senses are so unruly.

But he controls the senses

And recollects the mind

And fixes it on me.

I call him illumined.

Thinking about sense-objects

Will attach you to sense-objects;

Grow attached, and you become addicted;

Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger;

Be angry, and you confuse your mind;

Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience;

Forget experience, you lose discrimination;

Lose discrimination, and you miss life’s only purpose.

When he has no lust, no hatred,

A man walks safely among the things of lust and hatred.

To obey the Atman

Is his peaceful joy;

Sorrow melts

Into that clear peace:

His quiet mind

Is soon established in peace.

The uncontrolled mind

Does not guess that the Atman is present:

How can it meditate?

Without meditation, where is peace?

Without peace, where is happiness?

The wind turns a ship

From its course upon the waters:

The wandering winds of the senses

Cast man’s mind adrift

And turn his better judgment from its course.

When a man can still the senses

I call him illumined.

The recollected mind is awake

In the knowledge of the Atman

Which is dark night to the ignorant:

The ignorant are awake in their sense-life

Which they think is daylight:

To the seer it is darkness.

Water flows continually into the ocean

But the ocean is never disturbed:

Desire flows into the mind of the seer

But he is never disturbed.

The seer knows peace:

The man who stirs up his own lusts

Can never know peace.

He knows peace who has forgotten desire.

He lives without craving:

Free from ego, free from pride.

This is the state of enlightenment in Brahman:

A man does not fall back from it

Into delusion.

Even at the moment of death

He is alive in that enlightenment:

Brahman and he are one.

Karma Yoga

Arjuna:

BUT, KRISHNA, if you consider knowledge of Brahman superior to any sort of action, why are you telling me to do these terrible deeds?

Your statements seem to contradict each other. They confuse my mind. Tell me one definite way of reaching the highest good.

Sri Krishna:

I have already told you that, in this world, aspirants may find enlightenment by two different paths. For the contemplative is the path of knowledge: for the active is the path of selfless action.

Freedom from activity is never achieved by abstaining from action. Nobody can become perfect by merely ceasing to act. In fact, nobody can ever rest from his activity even for a moment. All are helplessly forced to act, by the gunas.

A man who renounces certain physical actions but still lets his mind dwell on the objects of his sensual desire, is deceiving himself. He can only be called a hypocrite. The truly admirable man controls his senses by the power of his will. All his actions are disinterested. All are directed along the path to union with Brahman.

Activity is better than inertia. Act, but with self-control. If you are lazy, you cannot even sustain your own body.

The world is imprisoned in its own activity, except when actions are performed as worship of God. Therefore you must perform every action sacramentally, and be free from all attachments to results.

In the beginning

The Lord of beings

Created all men,

To each his duty.

“Do this,” He said,

“And you shall prosper.

Duty well done

Fulfills desire

Like Kamadhenu

The wish-fulfiller.”

“Doing of duty

Honors the devas:

To you the devas

In turn will be gracious:

Each honoring other,

Man reaches the Highest.

Please the devas:

Your prayer will be granted.”

But he who enjoys the devas’ bounty

Showing no thanks,

He thieves from the devas.

Pious men eat

What the gods leave over

After the offering:

Thus they are sinless.

But those ungodly

Cooking good food

For the greed of their stomachs

Sin as they eat it.

Food quickens the life-sperm:

Food grows from the rainfall

Called down out of heaven

By sacrifice offered:

Sacrifice speaks

Through the act of the ritual.

This is the ritual

Taught by the sacred

Scriptures that spring

From the lips of the Changeless:

Know therefore that Brahman

The all-pervading

Is dwelling for ever

Within this ritual.

If a man plays no part

In the acts thus appointed

His living is evil

His joy is in lusting.

Know this, O Prince:

His life is for nothing.

But when a man has found delight and satisfaction and peace in the Atman, then he is no longer obliged to perform any kind of action. He has nothing to gain in this world by action, and nothing to lose by refraining from action. He is independent of everybody and everything. Do your duty, always; but without attachment. That is how a man reaches the ultimate Truth; by working without anxiety about results. In fact, Janaka and many others reached enlightenment, simply because they did their duty in this spirit. Your motive in working should be to set others, by your example, on the path of duty.

Whatever a great man does, ordinary people will imitate; they follow his example. Consider me: I am not bound by any sort of duty. There is nothing, in all the three worlds, which I do not already possess; nothing I have yet to acquire. But I go on working, nevertheless. If I did not continue to work untiringly as I do, mankind would still follow me, no matter where I led them. Suppose I were to stop? They would all be lost. The result would be caste-mixture and universal destruction.

The ignorant work

For the fruit of their action:

The wise must work also

Without desire

Pointing man’s feet

To the path of his duty.

Let the wise beware

Lest they bewilder

The minds of the ignorant

Hungry for action:

Let them show by example

How work is holy

When the heart of the worker

Is fixed on the Highest.

Every action is really performed by the gunas. Man, deluded by his egoism, thinks: “I am the doer.” But he who has the true insight into the operations of the gunas and their various functions, knows that when senses attach themselves to objects, gunas are merely attaching themselves to gunas. Knowing this, he does not become attached to his actions.

The illumined soul must not create confusion in the minds of the ignorant by refraining from work. The ignorant, in their delusion, identify the Atman with the gunas. They become tied to the senses and the action of the senses.

Shake off this fever of ignorance. Stop hoping for worldly rewards. Fix your mind on the Atman. Be free from the sense of ego. Dedicate all your actions to me. Then go forward and fight. . . .

Renunciation through Knowledge

Sri Krishna:

Foe-consumer,

Now I have shown you

Yoga that leads

To the truth undying.

I taught this yoga

First to Vivaswat,

Vivaswat taught it

In turn to Manu,

Next Ikshvaku

Learnt it from Manu,

And so the sages

In royal succession

Carried it onward

From teacher to teacher,

Till at length it was lost,

Throughout ages forgotten.

Arjuna:

Vivaswat was born long before you. How am I to believe that you were the first to teach this yoga?

Sri Krishna:

You and I, Arjuna,

Have lived many lives.

I remember them all:

You do not remember.

I am the birthless, the deathless,

Lord of all that breathes.

I seem to be born:

It is only seeming,

Only my Maya.

I am still master

Of my Prakriti,

The power that makes me.

When goodness grows weak,

When evil increases,

I make myself a body.

In every age I come back

To deliver the holy,

To destroy the sin of the sinner,

To establish righteousness.

He who knows the nature

Of my task and my holy birth

Is not reborn

When he leaves this body:

He comes to me.

Flying from fear,

From lust and anger,

He hides in me

His refuge, his safety:

Burnt clean in the blaze of my being,

In me many find home.

Whatever wish men bring me in worship,

That wish I grant them.

Whatever path men travel

Is my path:

No matter where they walk

It leads to me.

Most men worship the gods because they want success in their worldly undertakings. This kind of material success can be gained very quickly here on earth.

I established the four castes, which correspond to the different types of guna and karma. I am their author; nevertheless, you must realize that I am beyond action and changeless. Action does not contaminate me. I have no desire at all for the fruits of action. A man who understands my nature in this respect will never become the slave of his own activity. Because they understood this, the ancient seekers for liberation could safely engage in action. You, too, must do your work in the spirit of those early seers.

What is action? What is inaction? Even the wise are puzzled by this question. Therefore, I will tell you what action is. When you know that, you will be free from all impurity. You must learn what kind of work to do, what kind of work to avoid, and how to reach a state of calm detachment from your work. The real nature of action is hard to understand.

He who sees the inaction that is in action, and the action that is in inaction, is wise indeed. Even when he is engaged in action he remains poised in the tranquility of the Atman.

The seers say truly

That he is wise

Who acts without lust or scheming

For the fruit of the act:

His act falls from him,

Its chain is broken,

Melted in the flame of my knowledge.

Turning his face from the fruit,

He needs nothing:

The Atman is enough.

He acts, and is beyond action.

Not hoping, not lusting,

Bridling body and mind,

He calls nothing his own:

He acts, and earns no evil.

What God’s Will gives

He takes, and is contented.

Pain follows pleasure,

He is not troubled:

Gain follows loss,

He is indifferent:

Of whom should he be jealous?

He acts, and is not bound by his action.

When the bonds are broken

His illumined heart

Beats in Brahman:

His every action

Is worship of Brahman:

Can such acts bring evil?

Brahman is the ritual,

Brahman is the offering,

Brahman is he who offers

To the fire that is Brahman.

If a man sees Brahman

In every action,

He will find Brahman.

Some yogis merely worship the devas. Others are able, by the grace of the Atman, to meditate on the identity of the Atman with Brahman. For these, the Atman is the offering, and Brahman the sacrificial fire into which It is offered.

Some withdraw all their senses from contact with exterior sense-objects. For these, hearing and other senses are the offering, and self-discipline the sacrificial fire. Others allow their minds and senses to wander unchecked, and try to see Brahman within all exterior sense-objects. For these, sound and the other sense-objects are the offering, and sense-enjoyment the sacrificial fire.

Some renounce all the actions of the senses, and all the functions of the vital force. For these, such actions and functions are the offering, and the practice of self-control is the sacrificial fire, kindled by knowledge of the Atman.

Then there are others whose way of worship is to renounce sense-objects and material possessions. Others set themselves austerities and spiritual disciplines: that is their way of worship. Others worship through the practice of Raja Yoga.

Others who are earnest seekers for perfection and men of strict vows, study and meditate on the truths of the scriptures. That is their way of worship.

Others are intent on controlling the vital energy; so they practice breathing exercises—inhalation, exhalation, and the stoppage of the breath. Others mortify their flesh by fasting, to weaken their sensual desires, and thus achieve self-control.

All these understand the meaning of sacrificial worship. Through worship, their sins are consumed away. They eat the food which has been blessed in the sacrifice. Thus they obtain immortality and reach eternal Brahman. He who does not worship God cannot be happy even in this world. What, then, can he expect from any other?

All these, and many other forms of worship are prescribed by the scriptures.

All of them involve the doing of some kind of action. When you fully understand this, you will be made free in Brahman

The form of worship which consists in contemplating Brahman is superior to ritualistic worship with material offerings

The reward of all action is to be found in enlightenment.

Those illumined souls who have realized the Truth will instruct you in the knowledge of Brahman, if you will prostrate yourself before them, question them and serve them as a disciple.

When you have reached enlightenment, ignorance will delude you no longer. In the light of that knowledge you will see the entire creation within your own Atman and in me.

And though you were the foulest of sinners,

This knowledge alone would carry you

Like a raft, over all your sin.

The blazing fire turns wood to ashes:

The fire of knowledge turns all karmas to ashes.

On earth there is no purifier

As great as this knowledge,

When a man is made perfect in yoga,

He knows its truth within his heart.

The man of faith,

Whose heart is devoted,

Whose senses are mastered:

He finds Brahman.

Enlightened, he passes

At once to the highest,

The peace beyond passion.

The ignorant, the faithless, the doubter

Goes to his destruction.

How shall he enjoy

This world, or the next,

Or any happiness?

When a man can act without desire,

Through practice of yoga;

When his doubts are torn to shreds,

Because he knows Brahman;

When his heart is poised

In the being of the Atman

No bonds can bind him.

Still I can see it:

A doubt that lingers

Deep in your heart

Brought forth by delusion.

You doubt the truth

Of the living Atman.

Where is your sword

Discrimination?

Draw it and slash

Delusion to pieces.

Then arise

O son of Bharata:

Take your stand

In Karma Yoga.

The Yoga of Renunciation

Arjuna:

YOU SPEAK SO HIGHLY of the renunciation of action; yet you ask me to follow the yoga of action. Now tell me definitely: which of these is better?

Sri Krishna:

Action rightly renounced brings freedom:

Action rightly performed brings freedom:

Both are better

Than mere shunning of action.

When a man lacks lust and hatred,

His renunciation does not waver.

He neither longs for one thing

Nor loathes its opposite:

The chains of his delusion

Are soon cast off.

The yoga of action, say the ignorant,

Is different from the yoga of the knowledge of Brahman.

The wise see knowledge and action as one:

They see truly.

Take either path

And tread it to the end:

The end is the same.

There the followers of action

Meet the seekers after knowledge

In equal freedom.

It is hard to renounce action

Without following the yoga of action.

This yoga purifies

The man of meditation,

Bringing him soon to Brahman.

When the heart is made pure by that yoga,

When the body is obedient,

When the senses are mastered,

When man knows that his Atman

Is the Atman in all creatures,

Then let him act,

Untainted by action.

The illumined soul

Whose heart is Brahman’s heart

Thinks always: “I am doing nothing.”

No matter what he sees,

Hears, touches, smells, eats;

No matter whether he is moving,

Sleeping, breathing, speaking,

Excreting, or grasping something with his hand,

Or opening his eyes,

Or closing his eyes:

This he knows always:

“I am not seeing, I am not hearing:

It is the senses that see and hear

And touch the things of the senses.”

He puts aside desire,

Offering the act to Brahman.

The lotus leaf rests unwetted on water:

He rests on action, untouched by action.

To the follower of the yoga of action,

The body and the mind,

The sense-organs and the intellect

Are instruments only:

He knows himself other than the instrument

And thus his heart grows pure.

United with Brahman,

Cut free from the fruit of the act,

A man finds peace

In the work of the spirit.

Without Brahman,

Man is a prisoner,

Enslaved by action,

Dragged onward by desire.

Happy is that dweller

In the city of nine gates

Whose discrimination

Has cut him free from his act:

He is not involved in action,

He does not involve others.

Do not say:

“God gave us this delusion.”

You dream you are the doer,

You dream that action is done,

You dream that action bears fruit.

It is your ignorance,

It is the world’s delusion

That gives you these dreams.

The Lord is everywhere

And always perfect:

What does He care for man’s sin

Or the righteousness of man?

The Atman is the light:

The light is covered by darkness:

This darkness is delusion:

That is why we dream.

When the light of the Atman

Drives out our darkness

That light shines forth from us,

A sun in splendor,

The revealed Brahman.

The devoted dwell with Him,

They know Him always

There in the heart,

Where action is not.

He is all their aim.

Made free by His Knowledge

From past uncleanness

Of deed or of thought,

They find the place of freedom,

The place of no return.

Seeing all things equal,

The enlightened may look

On the Brahmin, learned and gentle,

On the cow, on the elephant,

On the dog, on the eater of dogs.

Absorbed in Brahman

He overcomes the world

Even here, alive in the world.

Brahman is one,

Changeless, untouched by evil:

What home have we but Him?

The enlightened, the Brahman-abiding,

Calm-hearted, unbewildered,

Is neither elated by the pleasant

Nor saddened by the unpleasant.

His mind is dead

To the touch of the external:

It is alive

To the bliss of the Atman.

Because his heart knows Brahman

His happiness is for ever.

When senses touch objects

The pleasures therefrom

Are like wombs that bear sorrow.

They begin, they are ended:

They bring no delight to the wise.

Already, here on earth,

Before his departure,

Let man be the master

Of every impulse

Lust-begotten

Or fathered by anger:

Thus he finds Brahman,

Thus he is happy.

Only that yogi

Whose joy is inward,

Inward his peace,

And his vision inward

Shall come to Brahman

And know Nirvana.

All consumed

Are their imperfections,

Doubts are dispelled,

Their senses mastered,

Their every action

Is wed to the welfare

Of fellow-creatures:

Such are the seers

Who enter Brahman

And know Nirvana.

Self-controlled,

Cut free from desire,

Curbing the heart

And knowing the Atman,

Man finds Nirvana

That is in Brahman,

Here and hereafter.

Shutting off sense

From what is outward,

Fixing the gaze

At the root of the eyebrows,

Checking the breath-stream

In and outgoing

Within the nostrils,

Holding the senses,

Holding the intellect,

Holding the mind fast,

He who seeks freedom,

Thrusts fear aside,

Thrusts aside anger

And puts off desire:

Truly that man

Is made free for ever.

When thus he knows me

The end, the author

Of every offering

And all austerity,

Lord of the worlds

And the friend of all men:

O son of Kunti

Shall he not enter

The peace of my presence? . . .

The Yoga of Devotion

Arjuna:

SOME WORSHIP you with steadfast love. Others worship God the unmanifest and changeless. Which kind of devotee has the greater understanding of yoga?

Sri Krishna:

Those whose minds are fixed on me in steadfast love, worshipping me with absolute faith, I consider them to have the greater understanding of yoga.

As for those others, the devotees of God the unmanifest, indefinable and changeless, they worship that which is omnipresent, constant, eternal, beyond thought’s compass, never to be moved. They hold all the senses in check. They are tranquil-minded, and devoted to the welfare of humanity. They see the Atman in every creature. They also will certainly come to me.

But the devotees of the unmanifest have a harder task, because the unmanifest is very difficult for embodied souls to realize.

Quickly I come

To those who offer me

Every action,

Worship me only,

Their dearest delight,

With devotion undaunted.

Because they love me

These are my bondsmen

And I shall save them

From mortal sorrow

And all the waves

Of Life’s deathly ocean.

Be absorbed in me,

Lodge your mind in me:

Thus you shall dwell in me,

Do not doubt it,

Here and hereafter.

If you cannot become absorbed in me, then try to reach me by repeated concentration. If you lack the strength to concentrate, then devote yourself to works which will please me. For, by working for my sake only, you will achieve perfection. If you cannot even do this, then surrender yourself to me altogether. Control the lusts of your heart, and renounce the fruits of every action.

Concentration which is practiced with discernment is certainly better than the mechanical repetition of a ritual or a prayer. Absorption in God—to live with Him and be one with Him always—is even better than concentration. But renunciation brings instant peace to the spirit.

A man should not hate any living creature. Let him be friendly and compassionate to all. He must free himself from the delusion of “I” and “mine.” He must accept pleasure and pain with equal tranquility. He must be forgiving, ever-contented, self-controlled, united constantly with me in his meditation. His resolve must be unshakable. He must be dedicated to me in intellect and in mind. Such a devotee is dear to me.

He neither molests his fellow men, nor allows himself to become disturbed by the world. He is no longer swayed by joy and envy, anxiety and fear. Therefore he is dear to me.

He is pure, and independent of the body’s desire. He is able to deal with the unexpected: prepared for everything, unperturbed by anything. He is neither vain nor anxious about the results of his actions. Such a devotee is dear to me.

He does not desire or rejoice in what is pleasant. He does not dread what is unpleasant, or grieve over it. He remains unmoved by good or evil fortune. Such a devotee is dear to me.

His attitude is the same toward friend and foe. He is indifferent to honor and insult, heat and cold, pleasure and pain. He is free from attachment. He values praise and blame equally. He can control his speech. He is content with whatever he gets. His home is everywhere and nowhere. His mind is fixed upon me, and his heart is full of devotion. He is dear to me.

This true wisdom I have taught will lead you to immortality. The faithful practice it with devotion, taking me for their highest aim. To me they surrender heart and mind. They are exceedingly dear to me.