The Bhagavad Gita

by George Thompson

  6. I am unborn, and my self is eternal, and I am the lord of all beings. Nevertheless, I take part in nature and I manifest myself by means of my own power.1

  7. Whenever religious duty wanes, Arjuna, and its opposite, chaos,2 waxes strong, then I release myself into the world.

  8. In age after age, I manifest myself in order to protect the virtuous, to destroy those who do harm, and to reestablish religious duty.

  9. The one who truly knows that my birth and my action are divine does not return for another birth, when he abandons the body at death. Arjuna, he returns to me!

  10. Many people have been purified by the fire of knowledge. They no longer feel passion or fear or anger. They belong to me and take their refuge in me. In the end they all come to me.

  11. Those who come to me, no matter how they do so—I grant them my grace. Arjuna, all men universally3 follow my path.

  12. They hope for success in their actions, so they sacrifice here to the gods, because here in the world of mankind success comes quickly from acts of sacrifice.

  13. I created the four castes of the world, distinguishing them according to their qualities and their actions. And though I am the agent of this world, know that I am also the eternal nonagent.

  14. Actions do not defile me. You will not find any desire in me for the fruits of action. One who understands this about me is not imprisoned by his own actions.

  15. Knowing this, the ancient ones performed the actions that they were obliged to do, even as they strove eagerly toward liberation. Therefore, you too should perform all obligatory actions, just like the ancient ones before you!

  16. What is action? What is nonaction? Even the sages were confused about this. I will now explain to you what action is, since knowing this will free you from your misery.

  17. You should understand what action is and distinguish it from wrong action. And from these you must distinguish nonaction. The path of action is hard to understand!

  18. He who is able to see the nonaction within action, and the action within nonaction, is truly full of wisdom among men. He performs all obligatory actions, but he is disciplined in yoga.

  19. A man whose endeavors are free from the manipulations of desire sacrifices his actions in the fire of knowledge. The wise call him a learned man.

  20. Giving up his attachment to the fruits of his actions, always content, dependent on nothing—even when he engages in action, he himself does not really act at all.

  21. When he has abandoned hope, and has restrained himself and his thoughts, when he has abandoned all of his possessions, then it is only his body that acts;4 he does not accumulate guilt.

  22. Content with whatever chance brings to him, he has passed beyond duality. He knows no envy. He is even-tempered whether in success or in failure. Even when he does act, he is not imprisoned by his actions!

  23. When a man is unattached and free of all of this, when his thoughts are rooted firmly in knowledge, when he performs his actions in the spirit of sacrifice, his actions are completely dissolved!

  24. The offering is this infinite Brahman. The oblation is this infinite Brahman. It is Brahman that pours the oblation into the fire of Brahman. One attains to Brahman by concentrating completely on the action of Brahman!5

  25. Some yogins engage only in sacrifices to the gods. Others sacrifice symbolically by pouring their oblations into the fire of infinite Brahman.6

  26. Some yogins pour the senses into the fire of self-restraint, withdrawing their hearing and their other senses. Yet others pour sound and the other sense objects into the fire of the senses.

  27. And others offer all of the actions of the senses, the actions of the breath and the other actions, into the fire of the yoga of self-control which is ignited by knowledge.

  28. Some sacrifice material objects, others practice austerities, and still others practice yoga. Some sacrifice through their knowledge and their study of the Vedas. These are all devout men committed to keeping their sacred vows.

  29. Others engage in the practice of breath control7 by checking the course of the inhaled breath and the exhaled breath. Thus they pour the inhaled breath into the exhaled, and the exhaled breath into the inhaled.

  30. Others refrain from eating, instead pouring their breaths into the cosmic breaths.8 All of these people know the meaning of sacrifice. Sacrifice destroys impurities.

  31. There are men who eat the remnants of the sacrifice, the nectar of immortality. They go to the eternal Brahman. This world does not belong to the man who does not sacrifice, Arjuna! How then could the next world be his?

  32. In this way the many forms of sacrifice are spread out as an offering before Brahman. Know that they are all born from action. Knowing this you will be free!

  33. But, Arjuna, the sacrifice of knowledge9 is higher than the sacrifice of material things. All action without exception culminates in knowledge.

  34. Learn this, Arjuna, by submitting humbly to one’s teachers, by asking them thoughtful questions, by serving them. They are men of knowledge and they have seen the truth. They will pass their knowledge on to you.

  35. When you have learned this, Arjuna, you will never encounter delusion again. By means of this knowledge you will come to see fully that all beings are in yourself and thus in me.

  36. Even if you were the most sinful among all sinners, with the help of this ship of knowledge you will cross over all of this sorrow.

  37. Just as fire, once it is kindled, reduces the firewood to ashes, in the very same way, Arjuna, the fire of knowledge reduces all of your actions to ashes!

  38. You will not find anywhere in this world a means of purification that is the equal of knowledge. A man who has been perfected by yoga in time will find knowledge within himself.

  39. A man of faith, intent only upon this knowledge, his senses well restrained, will obtain it, and once he has obtained it, he soon reaches supreme peace.

  40. But a man who does not have this knowledge and faith will perish, his soul filled with doubts. And filled with doubts as he is, there will be no joy for him either in this world or the next.

  41. Arjuna, actions do not bind the man who renounces his actions through yoga, who severs doubt by means of knowledge, who is in full possession of himself.

  42. Therefore, with this sword of knowledge, sever this doubt that rests in your heart, Arjuna, this doubt of yours that arises from ignorance. Stand up, then, and stand upon yoga!

  FIVE

  Arjuna spoke:

  1. You praise the renunciation1 of actions, Ka, and then again you praise yoga as a means of action. Please tell me with all certainty which of these is the better course?

  The Blessed One spoke:

  2. Renunciation of action and the yoga of action both lead to the highest good, but of the two the yoga of action is better than the renunciation of action.

  3. One who does not hate and who does not desire is understood to be a permanent sanyāsin. Because he is beyond dualisms, Arjuna, he is easily freed from his bondage.

  4. It is only the foolish who declare that Sākhya philosophy and yoga discipline are different schools. The learned do not say this. A man who is focused completely on either one will find the fruit of both.

  5. Practitioners of yoga arrive at the same position that practitioners of Sākhya philosophy reach. Whoever can see that Sākhya and yoga are a single discipline sees truly.

  6. But, Arjuna, renunciation is difficult to attain without yogic discipline, whereas a sage who is disciplined in yoga quickly reaches infinite Brahman.

  7. Once he becomes disciplined in yoga, the self2 becomes purified, the self becomes controlled, and his senses become subdued. The self becomes united with the self of all creatures. Whatever he does in this state does not stain him.

  8. “I who am not doing anything,” he should think to himself, the man who is disciplined in yoga, and who knows the true nature of things. Meanwhile, he sees, he hears, he touches, he smells, he eats, he goes, he sleeps,
he breathes,

  9. he talks, he relieves himself, he takes with his hands, he opens his eyes, he closes his eyes—but always he holds firm to the thought, “This is merely the senses interacting with sense objects.”

  10. He gives his actions over to infinite Brahman and abandons attachment. When he acts in this way, guilt does not adhere to him, just as water does not adhere to the lotus leaf.

  11. Yogins perform actions with body and mind and insight, and with the senses as well, but since they have abandoned attachment, they perform these actions only for the purification of the self.

  12. The undisciplined man is attached to the fruits of his action and is in bondage to the desire that causes them. But the disciplined man abandons the fruits of his actions and thereby attains abiding peace.

  13. In his mind he renounces all actions. The embodied one sits easily, in control, within that city of the nine gates that is his body, neither acting nor causing others to act.

  14. The lord does not engender the world’s agency or actions or the perpetual union of the world’s actions with their fruits. These arise autonomously, out of their own nature.

  15. The ever-present lord does not take on the effects of anyone’s misfortune nor anyone’s good fortune. Knowledge of him is obscured by ignorance. All peoples are deluded by it.

  16. But whenever this ignorance among men is destroyed by knowledge of the self, then like the sun their knowledge illuminates that supreme realm of Brahman.

  17. That is their insight, that is their true self. That is their foundation and their ultimate goal. They reach that state of no return where their sins are dispelled by knowledge.

  18. Learned men look upon an educated and cultured Brahmin just as they look upon a cow or an elephant or a dog, or even a low-caste dog-eater.

  19. This created world is conquered by those who maintain the mind in equanimity. And indeed for them the world of Brahman is a flawless equilibrium, and as a result they dwell in Brahman.

  20. One should not take pleasure in getting what one wants, nor should one reject getting what one does not want. One’s insight is steady. One is not confused. One knows Brahman and dwells in it.

  21. When one is no longer attached to contact with external objects, one finds pleasure within oneself. The self is disciplined by brahmayoga,3 and one reaches a pleasure that is imperishable.

  22. For the delights that arise from external objects are really wombs of misery. They all have a beginning and an end, Arjuna. A wise man takes no pleasure in them.

  23. The man who is able to overcome the agitation that comes with desire and anger, here in this world, before he leaves the body—he is a disciplined man, he is a happy man.

  24. Such a man contains his pleasure and his joy within himself. His light is within himself and nowhere else. Such a man is a yogin who has become one with Brahman. He has reached the sublime peace of Brahman.

  25. Seers who destroy their sins, who cut through all doubt, who are masters of themselves, attain this sublime peace of Brahman, delighting in the welfare of all beings.

  26. The sublime peace of Brahman is always present for those devoted men who have freed themselves from desire and anger, who have tamed their minds and have come to know themselves.

  27. The sage shuns external objects and fixes his gaze between the eyebrows. He balances the inhaled breath with the exhaled breath as they pass through the nostrils.

  28. His senses, his thoughts, and his insights are all restrained. This sage is committed to his liberation. In him, desire and fear and anger have vanished. He is what he always has been. He is free.

  29. Know that it is I who am the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities. It is I who am the great lord of all worlds and the heart’s friend of all beings. Know this and find peace.

  SIX

  The Blessed One spoke:

  1. Whoever does not concern himself with the fruits of action and yet performs the actions that he is obliged to do is both a sanyāsin and a yogin. Whoever neglects his ritual fires and his ritual obligations is not.1

  2. Arjuna, know that what people call renunciation is really yoga, for no one becomes a yogin who has not renounced personal intention.

  3. For a sage who seeks to advance in yoga, action is said to be the instrument, whereas for a sage who has already advanced in yoga, serenity is said to be the instrument.

  4. One is said to be advanced in yoga when one has renounced all personal intention and when one is no longer attached to sense objects and actions.

  5. One should lift oneself up by means of the self. Do not degrade the self, for the self is one’s only friend, and at the same time the self is one’s only foe.

  6. The self is one’s friend when one has conquered the self by means of the self. But when a man neglects the self, then, like an enemy at war, that very self will turn against him.

  7. A peaceful man who has mastered himself has a higher self that is deeply concentrated, whether in cold or in heat, whether in pleasure or in pain, whether in honor or in disgrace.

  8. Such a man has a self that delights in knowledge and discrimination. He stands on the mountaintop. He has conquered his senses. He is called a yogin because he is disciplined. A clod of earth, a rock, a piece of gold—for such a man, it’s all the same.

  9. He is distinguished among men because he regards them all as the same: a friend, an ally, a foreigner, a bystander, a neutral party, an enemy, a kinsman—whether good men or evil!

  10. A yogin should always discipline himself. He should dwell in a remote place, alone, restraining his thoughts and himself, without hopes and without ambitions.

  11. He should prepare for himself a firm seat2 in a purified place that is neither too high nor too low, a seat that is covered by a sacred cloth, a deerskin, and kuśa grass.

  12. There he should fix his mind on a single object and restrain the activity of his thoughts and senses. Sitting in that seat he should practice yoga for the purification of the self.

  13. He should be steadfast, holding his body, his head, and his neck straight and motionless. He should focus his gaze on the tip of his nose and keep his gaze from wandering.

  14. With the self at peace and all fears gone, he should hold firm to his vow of celibacy. He should sit, in full control of his mind, with his thoughts on me, disciplined, intent on me.

  15. A yogin who disciplines himself vigilantly in this way, controlling his mind, attains the peace that culminates in nirvāa,3 the peace that rests in me.

  16. Yoga is not the path for someone who eats too much, nor for someone who refuses to eat at all.4 Nor, Arjuna, is it the path for someone who sleeps too much, or someone who stays too much awake.

  17. The yoga that destroys sorrow is the path for someone disciplined in his eating and his playing, disciplined in his performance of the actions that he is obliged to do, disciplined both in the dream state and in wakefulness.

  18. One is said to be disciplined in yoga when one’s craving for all of the pleasures of the world is gone, and when one’s thoughts are controlled and focused only on the self.

  19. Like a lamp where there is no wind, he does not waver. This is the traditional image of the yogin whose mind is restrained and who practices the yoga of the self.

  20. When his thinking settles down and comes to rest, checked by the practice of yoga, and when he sees the self by means of the self alone, he takes pleasure only in the self.

  21. The endless joy that is beyond the senses and can be perceived only with insight—when he knows this steadfastly, he never wanders from this truth.

  22. And when he has obtained this truth, he understands that there is nothing greater to be obtained than this. When he is steadfast in this truth, no sorrow disturbs him, no matter how heavy it is to endure.

  23. He should know that this is what yoga is: to undo the bonds that bind us to sorrow. It should be practiced with determination and without the despair that troubles one’s thoughts.

  24. He should aba
ndon all desires, without exception, that arise from self-interest. He should completely restrain the crowd of the senses with his mind.

  25. Slowly but surely he should settle down and come to rest, with insight that is held firmly. He should direct his mind to the self. He should reflect upon nothing whatsoever.

  26. Wherever the unstable wavering mind wanders off to, he should withdraw his mind from there, and bring it under control within himself.

  27. For supreme joy comes to the yogin whose mind is at peace. This yogin has pacified his passion, he has merged with Brahman, he is without stain.

  28. In this way, constantly disciplining himself, the yogin has freed himself from stain. He easily attains the endless joy that comes from contact with Brahman.

  29. Having yoked himself by means of yoga, he sees the self that dwells in all beings and all beings within the self. Indeed, he sees the same in all things.

  30. Whoever sees me everywhere and sees everything in me will never be separated from me, nor will I be separated from him.

  31. The yogin who is aware of the oneness of life is devoted to me, the one who dwells in all beings. Wherever he happens to find himself, he remains within me.

  32. Arjuna, whoever sees the identity in all beings by comparing them all to the self within him—whether there is joy or sorrow there—I think of such a man as a highest yogin.

  Arjuna spoke:

  33. You have explained yoga to me as equanimity in all things. But, Ka, I cannot see how this can be firmly established, because of all this restlessness.

  34. The mind is restless, Ka. It is violent, strong, and stubborn. I think that restraining it is very difficult, like restraining the wind!

  The Blessed One spoke:

  35. No doubt, Arjuna! The mind is difficult to control, and restless. But, Arjuna, with rigorous practice and dispassion one can restrain it.

  36. Yoga is difficult to practice for one who cannot control himself. That is my view as well. But a man who can control himself, and who strives, is capable of practicing yoga, by using the right means.