Knowledge and action

I taught this imperishable yoga to Vivasvat; Vivasvat taught it to Manu; Manu told it to Ikshvaku.

Handed down thus in succession, the royal sages knew it. Through long passage of time, this yoga was lost to the world, scorcher of enemies.

That very ancient yoga I have taught you today, for you are my devotee and my friend—and this is the deepest secret.

Your birth was later, and the birth of Vivasvat came first. How am I to understand that you taught this in the beginning?

Many births have passed for me and for you, Arjuna. I know them all, while you do not know them, scorcher of enemies.

Though I am unborn and my nature is undying, and though I am the lord of all beings, still, ruling over my own prakṛti, I come into being through my own māyā.

Whenever dharma declines, descendant of Bharata, and adharma rises up, then I send myself forth.

For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, and for the establishment of dharma, I come into being age after age.

Whoever truly knows, in this way, my divine birth and action, does not, on leaving the body, take birth again—he comes to me, Arjuna.

Freed from attachment, fear, and anger, absorbed in me, taking refuge in me, purified by the fire of knowledge, many have reached my state of being.

In whatever way people approach me, in that same way I meet them—for it is my path, son of Prithā, that people follow, in every direction.

Desiring success in action, in this world, people worship the gods. This is because success born of action comes quickly in the human world.

The fourfold varṇa order was created by me, differentiated according to guṇa and karma. Though I am its maker, know me as the non-doer and unchanging.

Actions do not stain me, nor do I thirst for the fruit of action. Whoever knows me in this way is not bound by actions.

Knowing this, the ancients who sought liberation still performed action. So you too should perform action, just as the ancients did in earlier times.

Even wise men are confused about what is action and what is inaction. So I will explain action to you—knowing it, you will be freed from evil.

One must understand the nature of action, and also understand the nature of wrong action, and one must understand inaction as well—the true course of action is hard to fathom.

Whoever sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among people; he is disciplined in yoga, and he is one who has done all that needs doing.

The one whose every undertaking is free of desire and calculated intent, whose actions are burned up in the fire of knowledge—him the wise call learned.

Abandoning attachment to the fruit of action, always content, dependent on nothing, he does nothing at all, even while engaged in action.

Without expectation, his mind and self restrained, having given up all possessions, he incurs no wrong, performing action with the body alone.