Text* 1: Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, you speak of renunciation of actions, and then again, You speak of the path of selfless action. Therefore, please tell me clearly which is superior.

Text* 2: The Supreme Lord said: Both renunciation of action and the path of selfless action bring great benefit.Yet, of the two, know that the way of selfless action is superior.

Text* 3: O mighty-armed Arjuna, know that one who is free from attraction and aversion is truly renounced,though performing action; for one who is free from duality easily attains liberation from bondage.

Text* 4: The path of renunciation (sāṅkhya-yoga) and the path of selfless action (karma-yoga) are considered separate paths by the unwise, but not by the learned. One who perfectly follows either of these paths will achieve the result of both.

Text* 5: The state achieved by the renunciation of action is also achieved by the performance of selfless action.One who sees these two paths to be one and the same, actually sees.

Text* 6: O mighty hero, without selfless action, mere renunciation of action is the cause of sorrow. But the wiseman who engages in selfless action swiftly attains to the Absolute.

Text* 7: The clean-hearted person thus engaged in yoga controls his mind and senses. Becoming filled with affection and compassion for all beings, although fully active, he is never implicated by any action.

Text* 8-9: The realised karma-yogī performs the activities of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing, speaking, evacuating, grasping objects, blinking the eyes, and so on, and he understands, “My sense organs—eyes, ears, skin, nose, and tongue—function in relation to their respective objects of form, sound, touch, smell, and taste.” Thus, he considers, “I do not perform any action at all.”

Text* 10: One who, though living in this world, selflessly offers all his actions to the Supreme Lord, is not polluted by sin, as a lotus leaf remains on the water yet is untouched by it.

Text* 11: By giving up attachment, the karma-yogīs perform action merely through the body, mind, intelligence and even the senses, for self-purification.

Text* 12: Giving up attachment to the fruits of his actions, the materially unmotivated (niṣkām) karma-yogī attains constant peace, or liberation from actions and reactions. But the fruitive worker (sakām karmī) is attached to the fruits of his actions, and he becomes implicated by his endeavours.

Text* 13: Mentally renouncing all actions, the sense-controlled embodied living being resides happily within the city of nine gates*, neither acting nor causing work for others.* The body of nine gates—two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, mouth, anus, and genital.

Text* 14: The Lord does not generate anyone’s ego of considering themselves ‘the doer’, nor their actions, nor their association with the fruits of their actions. These are all a result of their external nature of ignorance since time immemorial.

Text* 15: The Supreme Lord accepts neither the sin nor the piety of anyone. The living beings fall into illusion because their knowledge is covered by ignorance.

Text* 16: For persons whose divine knowledge has awakened, their ignorance is destroyed, and their wisdom, like the shining sun, reveals the Supreme Reality.

Text* 17: Those whose illusion has been completely dispelled by knowledge always think of Me, the Supreme Lord; I am their meditation, and they abide in Me alone, hearing and singing My unending glories in pure devotion. Thus, they are liberated from the mundane.

Text* 18: The enlightened souls see transcendence within all living beings, whether the humble and learned brāhmaṇ, the cow, the elephant, the dog, or the dog-eater. Therefore, they are to be known as paṇḍit—men of true wisdom.

Text* 19: Those whose minds are equipoised in Brahma have conquered the cycle of birth and death while living within this world. By their perfect spiritual equanimity, they are always situated in transcendence.

Text* 20: Absorbed in transcendence, endowed with steady intelligence, and free from the delusion of thinking of the body and associated objects as ‘me’ and ‘mine,’ the knower of the Absolute is neither happy when pleasant things come his way nor sad when unpleasant things come his way.

Text* 21: Detaching his mind from external pleasures, such a knower of the Absolute Truth tastes the inner joy of self-realisation. Then, absorbing himself in meditation on the Absolute, he experiences inexhaustible bliss.

Text* 22: O son of Kuntī, the pleasures that arise from the contact of the senses with their objects are the cause of unhappiness, as they are transient. The wise never delight in such pleasures.

Text* 23: Know that one who, before leaving the body, utilises the opportunity of this life to check the impulses of desire and anger—he is a yogī who knows true happiness.

Text* 24: Such a yogī sees the self within and delights in the bliss of the self within. Attaining the transcendental state, he attains liberation from matter (and entry into the abode of Brahma).

Text* 25: Sinless, free from doubt, self-controlled, and dedicated to the welfare of all living beings, the seers of truth attain such liberation.

Text* 26: Persons of the renounced order who have controlled their thoughts, who are free from desire andanger, and who have achieved knowledge of the nature of the soul, are liberated whether they live or die.

Text* 27-28: 27–28 Expelling from the mind all the external sense objects of sound, touch, form, taste, and smell; centering the concentration and stabilising the incoming and outgoing breath; subjugating the senses, mind, and intelligence; dedicating himself to liberation; his desire, fear, and anger gone, such a sage is ever liberated.

Text* 29: I am the enjoyer and objective of the sacrifices performed by persons of action, and of the austerities performed by persons of knowledge. I am Nārāyaṇ, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, the worshippable Supreme Personality who awards liberation. I am Kṛṣṇa, the well-wisher of all and the dear friend of the devotees. One who knows Me thus, attains the bliss of knowing his own original divine identity.