Chapter
4 - The Yoga of Renunciation of Action in
Knowledge
The
Blessed Sri Krsn said:
I
taught this imperishable yoga to Vivasvan.
He taught it to Manu and Manu taught it to
Iksvaku. (4.01)
Thus
handed down in succession from father to
son; the royal sages knew this. By great
efflux of time, however, it has more or
less disappeared. (4.02)
The
same ancient Yoga has this day been
imparted to you by Me, because you are my
devotee and friend, and also because this
is the supreme secret. (4.03)
Arjun
said:
You
were born later, but Vivasvan (the Sun
God), was born in ancient time. How then
am I to understand that You taught this
yoga in the beginning? (4.04)
The
Blessed Sri Krsn said:
Both
you and I have taken many births. I
remember them all, O Arjun, but you do not
remember, O scorcher of foes. (4.05)
Though
I am unborn, of imperishable nature, the
Lord of all beings; Yet governing my
nature (prakiti), I manifest Myself
through My yoga maya (divine potency).
(4.06)
Whenever
there is a decline of righteousness and
rise of unrighteousness, O Arjun, then I
manifest Myself. For the protection of the
good, for the destruction of the wicked
and for the establishment of My
righteousness, I am born from age to age.
(4.07-08)
Arjun,
My birth and activities are divine. He who
know this in reality does not take birth
again on leaving his body, but attains Me.
(4.09)
Freed
from attachment, fear, and anger; absorbed
in Me, taking refuge in Me, and purified
by the penance of knowledge, many have
attained to My Being. (4.10)
As
men approach Me, so do I accept them; for
all men follow My path in every way.
(4.11)
Those
who desire the fruition of their actions
worship the gods; because success is
quickly attained by men through actions.
(4.12)
The
four fold caste (order) was created by Me
according to the modes of nature and
action. Though I am the creator, know Me,
the immortal Lord, to be a non-doer. Since
I have no craving for the fruit of
actions, actions do not taint Me. He who
know Me thus (in reality) is not bound by
actions. (4.13 - 14)
Having
known this, the ancient seekers of
liberation also performed action;
therefore, do thou also perform action as
the ancients did in former times. (4.15)
Even
the wise are at a loss to know what is
action and what is inaction. Therefore, I
shall expound to you the truth about
action, knowing which you will be freed
from its evil effect (binding nature).
(4.16)
The
truth about action must be known; and the
truth of prohibited action must also be
known; even so, the truth about inaction
must be known. For mysterious are the ways
of action. (4.17)
He,
who see inaction in action, and action in
inaction, is wise among men; he is a Yogi,
who has accomplished all action. (4.18)
He
whose undertakings are all free from
desire and thoughts of the world and whose
actions are burnt up by the fire of
wisdom, him even the wise call a sage.
(4.19)
Having
abandoned attachment to actions and their
fruits, ever content, without any kind of
dependence he does nothing though fully
engaged in action. (4.20)
Having
no desires, with his mind and self under
control, giving up all possessions,
performing action by the body alone, he
incurs no sin. (4.21)
Content
with what comes to him without effort,
free from the pairs of opposites and envy,
even-minded in success and failure, even
though acting, he is not bound. (4.22)
He,
whose attachment has gone, whose mind is
established in Knowledge, and who works
for the sake of sacrifice (selfless duty)
all actions of that liberated man melt
away. (4.23)
The
sacrifice in which the ladle (with which
the oblation is poured), etc., is Brahma,
the oblation itself is Brahma, even so the
act of pouring the same into the fire,
which is again Brahma, by the sacrificer,
who is himself Brahma, surely the goal to
be reached by him, who is absorbed in such
sacrifies as Brahma, is also Brahma
(Absolute). (4.24)
Other
Yogis offer sacrifice in the shape of
worship to the gods. Others pour into the
fire of Brahma, the very sacrifice in the
shape of the self; through the sacrifice
know as the perception of identity. (4.25)
Others
offer as sacrifice their senses of
hearing, etc., into the fires of
self-control. Other Yogis, again, offer
sound and other objects of perception into
the fires of the senses. (4.26)
Others
sacrifice all the functions of their
senses and the functions of the vital
airs, into the fire of Yoga, in the shape
of self-control, which is kindled by
wisdom. (4.27)
Some
perform sacrifice with material things,
some offer sacrifice in the shape of
penances, others sacrifice through the
practice of Yoga, while some striving
souls, observing austere vows, perform the
sacrifice of wisdom, through the study of
sacred texts. (4.28)
Others
offer as sacrifice the outgoing breath in
the incoming, and the incoming in the
outgoing, restraining the course of the
outgoing an the incoming breaths, solely
absorbed in the restraint of the breath.
Others who regulate their diet offer life
breaths. All these are knowers of
sacrifice and by sacrifice have their sins
destroyed. (4.29
- 30)
Those
who eat the sacred food that remains after
a sacrifice, attain to the eternal
Absolute; this world is not for him who
performs no sacrifice; how then can he
have any other world, O Best of the Kurus,
Arjun? (4.31)
Thus
many types of sacrifice are spread out in
the face of Brahman (the Vedas). Know them
all to born of action and thus knowing,
thou shalt be liberated. (4.32)
Knowledge
as a sacrifice is superior to any material
sacrifice, O harasser of the foes (Arjun).
All actions in their entirety, O Arjun,
culminate in knowledge. (4.33)
Attain
this knowledge by all means. If you
prostrate yourself at the feet of the
wise, render them all forms of service,
and question them with a guileless heart,
again and again, those wise seers of Truth
will unfold that Knowledge to you. (4.34)
Arjun,
acquiring that knowledge, you will no more
be subjected to delusion like this, and
through it you will see all beings first
in your self, and then in Me (the Oversoul).
(4.35)
Even
if you are the most sinful of all sinners,
you shall cross sins by the boat of
knowledge (wisdom) alone. (4.36)
As
the blazing fire reduces fuels to ashes, O
Arjun, even so does the fire of knowledge
reduce all actions ashes. (4.37)
Verily,
there is no purifier in this world like
knowledge. He who becomes perfected in
Yoga finds it in the self in course of
time. (4.38)
He
who has faith, who is devoted to it (i.e.
knowledge) and who has subdued his senses,
gains knowledge (wisdom) and having gained
knowledge he attains at once the supreme
peace. (4.39)
The
man who is ignorant, who has no faith, who
is for a doubting nature, perishes. For
the doubting soul, there is neither this
world nor the world beyond, nor any
happiness. (4.40)
He
who has renounced all actions by Yoga,
whose doubts have been destroyed by
knowledge and who is self-possessed -
actions do not bind him, O winner of
wealth, Arjun. (4.41)
Therefore,
having cut as under with the sword of
knowledge (wisdom) this doubt in thy heart
that is born of ignorance, resort to yoga
and stand up (for the fight), O Bharat,
Arjun. (4.42)
Thus
with the utterance of Om, Tat, Sat, the
names of the Lord, in the Upanishad of the
Bhagawad Gita, the knowledge of Brahman,
the Supreme, the science of yoga and the
dialogue between Sri Krsn and Arjun, this
is the fourth discourse designated :
"The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
in Knowledge."
Swami Veet Chintan T'Zorba-Krsna
Jyotish
Shastracharya
& Vedic Astrologer of India
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