Text* 1: Arjuna said: O Janārdan, O Keśava, if You consider wisdom superior to action, why, then, do you urge me to engage in the violence of warfare?

Text* 2: I am confused by Your words. They appear to be ambiguous, sometimes supporting action and sometimes supporting wisdom. So please tell me, which is the most beneficial path for me to take?

Text* 3: The Supreme Lord replied: O sinless one, I have described the two paths to be found in this world—the yoga of wisdom practised by the realised and the yoga of selfless action practised by those active in the world. (Both paths touch the beginnings of devotional practice since the ladder to the plane of devotion is one, while the practice is twofold according to the stage attained.)

Text* 4: One cannot attain freedom from action by refraining from action. Nor can one attain fulfillment by renunciation alone.

Text* 5: No one can refrain from activity for even a moment. Everyone is impelled to act by the modes of material nature. (Thus the person of impure consciousness should not disregard scripturally prescribed purificatory works.)

Text* 6: One who externally restrains his hands, legs, and other senses of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, is a fool. Know him to be a hypocrite.

Text* 7: O Arjuna, superior is one who (though married) has stabilised his senses by the mind and engaged in the yoga of selfless action.

Text* 8: Perform your prescribed duties, since to be active is better than idleness. Inactive persons cannot even maintain their existence. (By giving up fruitive action and performing your obligatory duties, your heart will be purified. Surpassing the plane of renunciation, you will attain pure devotion, transcendental to the mundane plane.)

Text* 9: Selfless duty performed as an offering to the Supreme Lord is called yajña, or sacrifice. O Arjuna, all action performed for any other purpose is the cause of bondage in this world of repeated birth and death. Therefore, remaining unattached to the fruits of action, perform all your duties in the spirit of such sacrifice. (Such selfless action is the way to begin devotional practice, gradually realise the presence of the Lord, and ultimately attain pure devotion transcendental to the modes of material nature [nirguṇa bhakti]).

Text* 10: In the beginning, Lord Brahmā manifested the progeny of the world, along with sacrifices. He instructed them thus: “Take shelter of this religious principle of sacrifice; prosper and flourish. May such sacrifice be the bestower of the things you desire.”

Text* 11: “Propitiate the gods by sacrifices, and may they satisfy you by bestowing your desired fruits. In this way, through mutual nourishment, you will be the gainers of great auspiciousness.”

Text* 12: Propitiated by sacrifices, the gods (My worldly representatives) will bestow upon you all your desired enjoyable things. But one who enjoys what is given by the gods without offering it to them, is a thief.

Text* 13: By accepting sacrificial remnants of the universal gods*, virtuous persons are liberated from all sins arising from violence towards other living entities. But those who prepare food for their own pleasure partake only of sin.* The remnants referred to here are not the same as the Kṛṣṇa-prasād (food that has been offered to the Supreme Lord by His devotees). See 9.20–26.

Text* 14: The living beings’ bodies are manifest from food, food is manifest due to rain, rainfall ensues from the performance of sacrifice, and action is the cause of sacrifice.

Text* 15: Action is prescribed in the Vedas, and the Vedas originate in Akṣara, the Imperishable. Therefore, the all-pervading, imperishable Lord is ever present within the acts of sacrifice offered to Him.

Text* 16: O Arjuna, one who does not respect this natural causal cycle leads a life of sin, enjoying the senses in vain.

Text* 17: Yet there is no duty to fulfill for the realised person who delights within the self, being fully satisfied within. (His only worldly action or karma is as required for his subsistence.)

Text* 18: In the world, he neither gains by action, nor loses by inaction. He does not depend on any other being (from Lord Brahmā down to the simplest life-form) for any purpose.

Text* 19: So perform your prescribed duties without attachment. By selflessly executing one’s duties a person attains liberation. (True liberation is the state of pure devotion, attained in the maturity of selfless action.)

Text* 20: King Janaka and other learned personalities succeeded in attaining devotion through the execution of their prescribed duties. So it is fitting that you fulfill your duty in consideration of the welfare of the people.

Text* 21: The masses follow the ways of great men, following the standards they set.

Text* 22: O Arjuna, I have no duty in the three worlds. I lack nothing, and there is nothing to be attained by Me; and yet, I, Myself, am active.

Text* 23: O Arjuna, if ever I do not engage attentively in duties, then all men, following My example, will give up their duties.

Text* 24: If I do not engage in duty, the people of these worlds will renounce their duties and fall to ruination.Thus I will be responsible for their downfall, caused by adulterated progeny.

Text* 25: O Arjuna, as ignorant persons work with attachment, the wise, too, must work, but without attachment, in order to guide the general people who exist in the plane of worldly action. (They differ not in their work but in their attitudes of attachment and detachment.)

Text* 26: The scripturally learned teacher should not create confusion in the minds of ignorant, attached men by apparently advocating the neglect of duty for the cultivation of knowledge. Rather, he should set the example of selflessness in fulfilling duties, thus encouraging the ignorant in the performance of their prescribed duties.

Text* 27: All actions in the world are in every respect effected by the modes of material nature (which impell the senses). But a man deluded by bodily identification thinks, “I alone am accomplishing this work.”

Text* 28: However, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one who is in knowledge of the division of the modes of material nature and action, knows that the modes are engaging within the modes, and he is detached from them. (One who knows that the three modes activated by the demigods impell the engagement of the senses with their objects, knows himself to be independent of these elements, therefore he does not consider himself a doer.)

Text* 29: Persons bewildered by the modes of nature are absorbed in the functions of the modes (the engagement of the senses with their objects). Enlightened persons should not agitate such ignorant, unfortunate persons by trying to convince them of higher philosophical truths. (Rather, they should advise the conditioned souls to practise selfless action, which liberates them from absorption in the modes.)

Text* 30: Surrender all your activities to Me with this understanding: “All my actions are under the control of the indwelling Lord.” In such consciousness, free from possessiveness and anguish, take recourse to battle (as your natural duty).

Text* 31: Faithful, unbegrudging men who always practise My teaching, this yoga of selfless action, are liberated from the bondage of action, even though they engage in action.

Text* 32: But the arrogant who resent My teaching are bereft of all knowledge. Know them to be lost in ignorance.

Text* 33: For even a knowledgable person tends to act according to his nature (mundane inclinations). The living beings’ endeavours are dictated by their natures. What, then, can repression accomplish?

Text* 34: Although the senses are attracted to and repelled by the sense objects, one must not be controlled by these urges, for they are the greatest enemy of the candidate for self-realisation.

Text 35: Even if it is imperfect, it is better to do one’s duty according to one’s own nature, than to do another’s well. Even death in the discharge of one’s own duty is better, for to perform another’s is dangerous.

Text* 36: Arjuna inquired: O descendant of the Vṛṣṇis, by what is the living being compelled to commit sinful activities, even unwillingly, as if by force?

Text* 37: The Supreme Lord replied: It is the desire to enjoy the mundane that induces a person to commit sin, and in different situations it produces anger. It is utterly insatiable, extremely malicious, and the worst enemy of the living being in this world.

Text* 38: As fire is thinly veiled by smoke, as a mirror is thickly covered with dust, and as the embryo remains completely enclosed within the womb, similarly, this desire covers the consciousness of the living being (in these three degrees of intensity, according to the modes of material nature — goodness, passion, and ignorance respectively).

Text* 39: Knowledge is covered by desire, the constant enemy of the wise. It burns like an insatiable fire (never satisfied by offerings of butter).

Text* 40: It is said that this enemy, desire, dwelling within the senses, mind, and intelligence, covers the perception of the embodied living being and deludes him.

Text* 41: Therefore, O noblest of the Bhāratas, control your senses and destroy this desire, the embodiment of sin, which destroys both knowledge and realisation.

Text* 42: It is said by the wise that the senses are superior to matter, the mind is superior to the senses, and the intelligence is superior to the mind; and the soul is superior to even the intelligence.

Text* 43: O mighty Arjuna, knowing the soul to be superior to the intelligence, steady the mind with resolute intelligence and destroy the formidable enemy, desire.