Arjuna said:
You are praising renunciation of desires and again the performance of duties. Of these two, tell me, definitely which is better ?
5-1
Sri Bhagavan Said:
No doubt both renunciation of desire and devotional performance of one's duty lead to the supreme good. But as between renunciation of all karmas understood as the import of karmasanyasa and as such performance of duties understood as per the import of yoga of action, the latter is better.
5-2
For O Mighty armed, he is to be understood as the true ascetic always who neither hates nor desires. One who is free from the pair of opposites is easily liberated from bondage.
5-3
It is only the ignorant and childish who proclaim that Sankhya and Yoga are different from one another; he who successfully masters one, secures the fruit, advantages or benefits of both.
5-4
That goal which is reached by the followers of Sankhya is attained also by those that follow Yoga. He who sees the courses of Sankhya and Yoga to be one and same, is the true seer.
5-5
O mighty armed, mere renunciation of desire without yoga, i.e doing ordained karma out of devotion to the Lord, brings on misery. The sage with yoga performing duties in a spirit of devotion, dedicating them to him reaches Brahman quickly.
5-6
He who is engaged in karma yoga, who is of pure nature, whose mind is controlled and senses subdued and who is convinced that the Lord of all is also his Lord, is not affected by sin, though he may be performing actions.
5-7
The Yogi should think that he does nothing at all by himself while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing, talking, expelling opening or shutting eyelids, knowing fully well that his senses are drawn to their objects under the direction of the Lord and that he himself is not, therefore an independent agent.
5-8,9
He who acts realizing that God is the real doer and that man is only a tool in his hand, dedicating all his doings to him and giving up attachment, is not affected by evil, just as lotus leaf is not moistened by water.
5-10
Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform duties by means of the body, the mind, the reason and the senses, for the purposes of self purification.
5-11
The Yogi who performs duties abandoning desire for the fruits of action and dedicating them to God attains everlasting peace, while the non-yogi doing acts that are engrossed in desire for fruits, is bound.
5-12
Soul having dedicated all actions to God and having control over his senses happy in the city of nine gates, neither acting nor causing others to act.
5-13
The Soul and its apparent master does not initiate any action nor has the power to attain independently the result of his action. The self existent alone acts independently.
5-14
The Lord does not accept the fruits of righteous or sinful actions. Knowledge is enveloped by ignorance. The creatures are deluded there by and are not therefore able to see the Lord.
5-15
To them, whose ignorance is destroyed by the knowledge of the Lord, the said knowledge reveals Him like the Sun.
5-16
Thinking of and contemplating him as their maker and ruler and as the sole object of their devotion, their sins having been washed away by wisdom, they attain that abode from which there is no return to transmigration.
5-17
Those who have acquired perfect knowledge from the study of scriptures see the same Lord, who pervades all beings and things, in a Brahmin of learning and humility, in the cow, in the elephant, in the dog and the Butcher.
5-18
Even here Mundane bondage is over come by those whose mind is set on the Lord's presence in all as equally flawless. Therefore, they are all established in God because their minds are firmly fixed in God.
5-19
He, who is thus firmly convinced and undeluded, who enjoys God vision and stands entrenched in God, shall not feel exalted on coming by what is pleasant nor become upset on coming by anything unpleasant.
5-20
He, whose mind is unattached like an Ascetic to the external objects with which the senses may come into contact and who experiences the internal Joy of his own self, that person with his mind devoted to meditation on the Lord secures imperishable bliss.
5-21
Whatever pleasures result from the contact of senses, they are only sources of misery, O Kunti's son, they have a beginning and end. No wise man delights in them.
5-22
He who is able to resist here alone the urges emanating from greed and anger before leaving the body, is one possessed of Yoga and a happy man.
5-23
He who enjoys happiness within, whose pleasure lies within and to whom the Lord has revealed His splendid Form in the self within his body - such a person is a Yogi and being entirely devoted to Brahman goes to Brahman who has no Material Body.
5-24
Wise men whose sins are destroyed, whose doubts and misapprehensions are cut to pieces, who have their minds controlled and who are engaged in the welfare of all beings attain Brahman, who has no material body.
5-25
Those who are free from desire and anger, who strive for it and have controlled the mind and who have known bodiless Brahman find him everywhere.
5-26
Shutting out all external objects from the senses and thus keeping them outside one's cognition, fixing the gaze between the eye brows and balancing the outgoing and incoming breath moving within the nostrils, the sage who has controlled his senses mind and reason, who is solely intent on liberation and is free from desire, fear and anger is certainly a released one at all times.
5-27,28
Having contemplated on me, as the enjoyer of sacrifices and penance, as the great ruler of all the worlds, as the friend of all beings and as the giver of salvation, he sees me and attains liberation.
5-29
Thus ends the Fifth chapter of the Upanishads of the Bhagavad Gita entitled " The Sanyasa Yoga" The Yoga of Renunciation of action.
