Renunciation in action

Krishna, you praise renunciation of actions, and then again their performance through yoga. Tell me for certain which one of these two is better.

Both renunciation and yoga of action lead to the highest good; but of the two, yoga of action surpasses renunciation of action.

He should be known as a perpetual renouncer who neither hates nor craves anything; for free from the pairs of opposites, mighty-armed one, he is easily released from bondage.

Children speak of sāṃkhya and yoga as different, not the learned. One who is truly established in even one of them finds the fruit of both.

The state reached by followers of sāṃkhya is also reached by followers of yoga. Whoever sees sāṃkhya and yoga as one truly sees.

But renunciation, mighty-armed one, is hard to attain without yoga; the sage disciplined by yoga reaches Brahman before long.

Disciplined by yoga, purified in self, having mastered the self and conquered the senses, identifying his self with the self of all beings—though he acts, he is not stained.

The knower of truth, established in yoga, should think, "I do nothing at all"—while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing, talking, releasing, grasping, and even opening and closing the eyes—holding firmly that it is the senses that move among the objects of the senses.

He who acts, having given up attachment, offering his actions to Brahman, is not stained by evil, just as a lotus leaf is untouched by water.

Yogis perform action with body, mind, intellect, and even with the senses alone, giving up attachment, for the purification of the self.

The disciplined one, giving up the fruit of action, attains lasting peace; the undisciplined one, driven by desire, attached to the fruit, becomes bound.

Mentally renouncing all actions, the self-controlled embodied one rests happily in the city of nine gates, neither acting nor causing action.

The Lord creates neither agency nor actions for the world, nor the union with the fruit of action—it is inherent nature that carries all this forward.

The all-pervading one takes on no one's sin, nor even their merit. Knowledge is covered over by ignorance; by that, creatures are deluded.

But for those in whom that ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the self, their knowledge, like the sun, illumines that Supreme.

Those whose intellect is fixed on That, whose self is That, whose foundation is That, whose final goal is That—their impurities washed away by knowledge—go to the state of no return.

The learned see with an equal eye a brahmin endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even an outcaste who eats dog's flesh.

Even here in this world, conditioned existence is overcome by those whose minds rest in evenness, for Brahman is flawless and even; therefore they are established in Brahman.

One should not rejoice on obtaining what is pleasant, nor be disturbed on obtaining what is unpleasant. With steady intellect, undeluded, the knower of Brahman is established in Brahman.

With the self unattached to external contacts, he finds the happiness that is in the self. His self joined in disciplined union with Brahman, he attains imperishable happiness.

For the pleasures that are born of contact with objects are truly wombs of suffering; they have a beginning and an end, son of Kunti—the wise do not delight in them.

One who is able, here in this world, even before release from the body, to withstand the force arising from desire and anger—he is disciplined, he is a happy person.

Whoever has happiness within, rest within, and light within—that yogi, having become Brahman, attains the freedom called brahma-nirvāṇa.

The seers whose impurities are exhausted, whose doubts are cut away, whose selves are disciplined, and who are devoted to the welfare of all beings attain the freedom called brahma-nirvāṇa.

For ascetics freed from desire and anger, with minds mastered and the self known, brahma-nirvāṇa is near on every side, both here and hereafter.

Shutting out external contacts, fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, making the in-breath and out-breath move evenly within the nostrils—the sage whose senses, mind, and intellect are mastered, intent on liberation as the highest goal, free from desire, fear, and anger—he is indeed forever free.

Knowing me as the one who receives sacrifice and austerity, the great lord of all worlds, the friend of all beings, he attains peace.