Jnana Yoga

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Bhagavad Gita

 

IV. JNANA YOGA

 

THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

 

1. I taught this imperishable Yoga to Vivasvat (Sun); Vivasvat taught

it to Manu; Manu taught to Ikshvaku.

 

2. This, handed down thus in succession, the King-sages learnt. This

yoga, by long lapse of time, has been lost here, O harasser of foes.

 

3. That same ancient Yoga has been to-day taught to thee by Me,

seeing that thou art My devotee and friend; for, this is the Supreme

Secret.

 

ARJUNA SAID:

 

4. Later is Thy birth and prior the birth of Vivasvat; how am I to

understand that Thou taughtest this Yoga in the beginning?

 

THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

 

5. Many births of Mine have passed, as well as of thine, O Arjuna;

all these I know, thou knowest not, O harasser of foes.

 

6. Though I am unborn, of imperishable nature, and though I am the

Lord of all beings, yet ruling over My own nature, I am born by My

own Maya.

 

7. Whenever there is a decay of religion, O Bharata and an ascendency

of irreligion, then I manifest Myself.

 

8. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers,

for the firm establishment of religion, I am born in every age.

 

9. Whoso knows thus My divine birth and action in truth is not born

again on leaving this body; he comes to Me, O Arjuna.

 

10. Free from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge

in Me, purified by the fire (tapas) of wisdom, many have reached My

being.

 

11. Howsoever men approach Me, even so do I reward them; My path do

men follow in all things O son of Pritha.

 

12. They who long after success in actions sacrifice here to the

Gods: for, soon in this world of man accrues success from action.

 

13. The fourfold caste has been created by me according to the

distribution of energies and actions; though I am the author thereof,

know Me as non-agent and immutable.

 

14. Actions pollute Me not, nor have I a desire for the fruit of

actions. He who knows Me thus is not bound by actions.

 

15. Thus knowing, men of old performed action in the hope of

liberation: therefore do thou also perform action as did the ancients

in the olden time.

 

16. What is action ? What is inaction - As to this, even the wise are

deluded. I shall teach thee such action, by knowing which thou shalt

be liberated from evil.

 

17. For, thou hast to know something even of action, something to

know of unlawful action, and something to know of inaction; hard to

understand is the nature of action.

 

18. He who can see inaction in action, who can also see action in

action, he is wise among men, he is devout, he is the performer of

all action.

 

19. He whose engagements are all devoid of desires and purposes and

whose actions have been burnt by the fire of wisdom, him the wise

call a sage.

 

20. Having abandoned attachment for the fruits of action, ever

content, dependent on none, though engaged in actions, nothing at all

does he do.

 

21. Free from desire, with the mind and the self controlled, having

relinquished all possessions doing mere bodily action, he incurs no

sin.

 

22. Satisfied with what comes to him by chance, rising above the

pairs of opposites, free from envy, equanimous in success and

failure, though acting he is not bound.

 

23. Of the man whose attachment is gone, who is liberated, whose mind

is established in knowledge, who acts for the sake of sacrifice - his

whole action melts away.

 

24. Brahman is the offering, Brahman the oblation; by Brahman is the

oblation poured into the fire of Brahman; Brahman verily shall be

reached by him who always sees Brahman in action.

 

25. Other Yogins resort to sacrifices to Gods; In the fire of Brahman

others offer the self by the self.

 

26. Others offer hearing and other senses in the fires of restraint;

others offer sound and other objects in the fires of the senses.

 

27. And others sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the

functions of the vitality in the wisdom-kindled fire of the Yoga of

Self-restraint.

 

28. Others are sacrificers by their wealth, sacrificers by austerity,

sacrificers by yogas, sacrificers by reading and knowledge, ascetics

of rigid vows.

 

29. Others offer prana (outgoing breath) in apana (incoming breath)

and apana in prana, restraining the passages of prana and apana,

absorbed in Pranayama (restraint of breath).

 

30. Others, with regulated food, offer life-breaths in life-breaths.

All these are knowers of sacrifice, whose sins are destroyed by

sacrifice.

 

31. Eating of ambrosia, the remnant of the sacrifice, they go to

Eternal Brahman. This world is not for the non-sacrificer; whence the

other? — O best of Kurus.

 

32. Thus manifold sacrifices are spread at the mouth of Brahman. Know

them all as born of action. Thus knowing, thou shalt be liberated.

 

33. Superior is wisdom-sacrifice to the sacrifice with objects, O

harasser of thy foes. All action, without exception, O son of Pritha,

is comprehended in wisdom.

 

34. Know this: by long prostration, by enquiry, by service, those men

of wisdom who have realised the truth will teach thee wisdom.

 

35. Knowing which, thou shalt not again thus fall into error, O

Pandava; and by which, thou wilt see all beings in thy Self and also

in Me.

 

36. Even shouldst thou be the most sinful of all the sinful, thou

shalt verily cross all sin by the bark of wisdom.

 

37. As kindled fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does wisdom-

fire reduce all actions to ashes.

 

38. Verily, there exists here no purifier equal to wisdom. He who is

perfected by Yoga finds it in time in himself by himself.

 

39. He obtains wisdom who is full of faith, who is devoted to it and

who has subdued the senses. Having obtained wisdom, he before long

attains to the Supreme Peace.

 

40. The ignorant, the faithless and one of doubting self, is ruined.

There is neither this world, nor the other, nor happiness, for one of

doubting self.

 

41. Him who has renounced actions by Yoga, whose doubts have been

cloven asunder by wisdom, who is self-possessed, actions bind not, O

Dhananjaya.

 

42. Therefore with the sword of wisdom cleave asunder this doubt of

the Self lying in the heart and born of ignorance and resort to Yoga.

Arise, O Bharata.