Chapter Four

                   The Path of Divine Knowledge

                              Jnana-yoga

 1) The Supreme Lord said: Previously, I imparted to Surya this
changeless path of knowledge, which is achieved by selfless action.
Surya, the presiding deity of the sun, delivered it to his son
Vaivasvata Manu, exactly as he had heard it from Me. Thereafter,
Manu instructed the same knowledge to his son Iksvaku.

2) O conqueror of the enemy, in this way, the saintly kings such as
Nimi, Janaka, and others, learned this path of knowledge through
the divine succession. Presently, after the passage of a long period
of time, this teaching has been almost completely lost.

3) Now, I shall deliver that eternal teaching to you. Because you
are My devotee and friend, this supreme, hidden path is today
revealed by Me to you.

4) Arjuna said: Vivasvan, the Sungod, was born in ancient times,
and You were born only recently. Therefore, how is it to be
believed, that You previously instructed these teachings to him?

5) The Supreme Lord said: O Arjuna, chastiser of the enemy,
both you and I have passed through many births previously. Due
to My position as the supreme controller, I am able to remember
all those births, whereas you, a living being of finite consciousness,
cannot.

6) Although My eternal form is transcendental to birth and death,
and I am the controller of all beings, I appear within the world in
My original form, by My own sweet will, extending My internal
potency of yoga-maya.

7) O Bharata, whenever there is a decline of religion and an
uprising of irreligion, I personally appear, like a being born in this
world.

8) I appear in every age to deliver the saintly devotees, to
vanquish sinful miscreants, and to firmly establish true religion.

9) O Arjuna, one who actually perceives My supramundane birth
and activities enacted by My sweet will, does not undergo rebirth.
After giving up his present body, he attains Me. Having become
subservient to My divine pleasure (hladini-sakti) in the form of
My revealed divine potency, such a soul achieves eternal
devotional service unto Me.

10) Freed from worldly infatuation, fear, and anger, many
persons have taken refuge in Me, absorbing their hearts in
hearing about Me, singing My divine glories, and remembering
Me. Having become thoroughly purified by knowledge of Me and
by penance endured for My sake, they attained divine love for Me.

11) As a person takes refuge in Me, I accordingly respond to him.
Being the ultimate goal of all philosophies and doctrines, I am the
objective to be attained by all. Certainly, O Partha, all men follow
My various paths.

12) Worldly persons desiring easy success in material life worship
Indra and other demigods. Such worship quickly yields the fruit
of its endeavor in this world, such as the attainment of heaven.

13) I alone have created in human society the fourfold divisions of
varna (brahmana etc.) according to the appropriate gradation to
material qualities (goodness, etc.) and duties (sense control, etc.)
In the entire world, there is no other creator apart from Me.
Nonetheless, although I am the creator of the natural gradation of
human society (varna-dharma), you should know Me as the
nondoer since I am aloof, transcendental to the modes of material
nature, and unchangable.

14) I am never implicated by the law of karma which I have
created to fulfill the destinies of the living beings, nor do I ever
aspire for the results of action. (Since I am the Supreme Lord
replete with all six opulences in full, the paltry fruits of worldly
actions are totally insignificant to Me.) One who appreciates this
conception of My singular independence from the actions of the
beings of this world, and who can thus understand My
unchangable existence such a person is never bound by any
action. By practicing pure devotional service, he surely comes to
Me.

15) Knowing this basic principle, liberationists of previous times
renounced all fruitive action, and without provincial interest
performed all their activities as an offering unto Me. Likewise,
you should adopt this yoga path of selfless action as did the great
saintly persons of yore.

16) Even very learned men are baffled in ascertaining the nature
of action and inaction. Some cannot comprehend action, while
others cannot comprehend inaction. Hence, I shall now teach you
about such action and inaction, knowing which you will attain
liberation from the evil world.

17) Action prescribed by the Vedas, action prohibited by the
scriptures, and the renunciation of action should be understood.
The performance of duties is known as action (karma); the
performance of prohibited actions is sinful (vikarma); and the
nonperformance of action, or renunciation of action, is known as
inaction (akarma). It is extremely difficult to realize the internal
principle of karma, vikarma, and akarma.

18) One who realizes that the selfless action performed by the man
of pure knowledge is never subject to bondage and is therefore in
fact inaction whereas the abnegation practiced by renunciate of
impure heart is the ill-fated cause of bondage he is, among men,
the intelligent yogi and factual executor of all works.

19) One whose every action is devoid of fruitive desire, and who
burns all prescribed and prohibited actions in the fire of pure
knowledge, is described by the conscientious as a man of true
wisdom.

20) Giving up attachment to the fruits of action, fully content in
the eternal bliss within, and indifferent to the security of mundane
acquisition and preservation such a person does not do anything
at all, although he is fully engaged. That is, he is never bound by
the fruits of his actions.

21) Having renounced all aspirations for fruitive enjoyment and
all excessive endeavors for mundane acquisition, keeping his mind
and body subjugated by the (developed) intelligence, if such a
person even engages in spurious action for his minimal bodily
sustenance, no sinful or pious reaction whatsoever is incurred by
him.

22) Content with whatever is readily available, and never
overwhelmed by duality based on pleasure and pain or
attachment and hatred, such a person wards off envy. He is
equipoised, being neither elated nor dejected in success or failure.
Therefore, he is never bound by any action.

23) All actions are perfectly dissipated when performed in the
spirit of sacrifice by the detached, liberated, and enlightened soul.
(The actions of the worker on the path of selfless action do not
lead to the consequence of apurva as postulated by the karma-
mimamsaka section.)

Commentary: According to their ethical but atheistic ideology, the
karma-mimamsaka philosophers (mundane rationalists) claim that
pious actions produce an unseen, subtle potency known as apurva,
which must fructivy at the appropiate time after death. Their
conception that this fruit can later be shared by others is meant to
show the eternality of karma, or action, but it neglects the presence of
the Supreme Autocrat. So the statement of Sri Krsna, samagram
praviliyate, "All actions are dissipated", should not be misinterpreted
to mean that the actions of liberated souls will cause some remote
worldly consequence, or apurva. Rather, the Lord clearly points out
that the pure actions offered to Him by the pure, selfless karma-yogi
do not cause any subsequent reaction to be either enjoyed or suffered
by others in this mundane plane.

24) According to the basic principles of sacrifice, the sacrificial
spoon, ladle, and other paraphernalia, the various offerings with
clarified butter, the sacrificial fire, the priest who performs the
sacrifice, and the act of offering the sacrifice and its reward all are
of the nature of Brahman, the Absolute. A person who, with this
understanding is constantly absorbed in divine action with one-
pointed attention, certainly attains to the divine plane of the
Absolute.

25) Other karma-yogis perform sacrifice in the worship of
demigods such as Indra and Varuna. Other jnana-yogis, simply
by vibrating the pranava mantra, Omkara, offer the individual
soul (as the sacrificial clarified butter) unto the Supersoul (as the
sacrificial fire).

26) Strict celibates offers their senses of hearing, touching, seeing,
tasting, and smelling into the sacrificial fire of mental control.
Householders engaged in their natural duties (svadharma) offer
for sacrifice the sense objects of sound, touch, form, taste, and
smell into the fire of the senses.

27) The monist yogis (headed by the Patanjala school) who aspire
to attain to the state of withdrawal of the soul from sense objects
(pratyagatma), offer all the senses and their functions of hearing,
seeing, etc., as well as all ten vital life-currents and their functions
into the fire of self-purification ignited by knowledge.

28) Some persons are inclined to perform sacrifice by giving
articles in charity, some by strict penances headed by candrayana,
some by adopting the eightfold mystic yoga practice, and yet
others, through recitation and study of the Vedic scriptures. All of
these persons are very diligent in their practices and adopt strict
vows.

29) Others practice breath-control. Stopping the right nostril and
inhaling through the left, they bring the ascending air into union
with the descending; closing the left nostril and exhaling through
the right, they similarly offer the descending air into the
ascending; and lastly, stopping both nostrils, they check both
ascending and descending airs. Yet other aspirants of sense-
control offer all the senses into the life-air by reducing their food
intake.

30) All these persons know well the principles of sacrifice. Having
purified themselves from sins by their performance of sacrifice,
they enjoy its remnants in the form of sense pleasure, wealth, and
yogic perfections. And in the end they reach the aforementioned
eternal plane of the Absolute.

31) O Arjuna, foremost of the Kurus, a person who never
performs sacrifice cannot even attain the meager pleasures of this
world; how then will it be possible for him to attain to other
worlds, such as heaven?

32) All these varieties of sacrifice are mentioned either in the
Vedas or allied scriptures. They all arise from vocal, mental, and
bodily actions, and therefore their origin is action. When you can
conceive of the principle of action (karma) in this way you will be
able to attain liberation from its bondage.

33) O Arjuna, subduer of the enemy, of those various sacrifices,
the sacrifice of knowledge as mentioned, brahmagnav apare ... is
far superior to the sacrifice of various articles, indicated by
brahmarpanam brahma havih ..., because all action ultimately
culminates in knowledge.

34) You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the
enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant
inquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in
scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realization of the
Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.

35) O Pandava, after receiving that knowledge of the truth as
imparted by the guru, you will no longer be deluded. You will be
able to realize that all species of life, whether man, bird, or beast,
are common in their individual identities of spirit soul, or jivatma.
Their comparative mundane gradations are only due to external
attributes, and they are all situated within Me as effect, Myself
being the supreme cause.

36) Even if you have led the most abominable sinful life, you will
cross the ocean of all miseries by boarding the ship of knowledge.

37) As a blazing fire reduces the wood and everything else within
it to ashes, O Arjuna, so also does the fire of knowledge burn up
all action.

38) Among the aforementioned practices of sacrifice, austerity,
and yoga, there is nothing as pure as divine knowledge. After a
long time, a person who has achieved perfection in his practice on
the path of selfless action realizes such knowledge spontaneously
within his heart.

39) After internal purification through nonfruitive action, genuine
knowledge arises. Such knowledge is attained by the intelligent,
sense-controlled theist who accepts this scriptural purport, and
who with sublime faith remains devoted to the path of selfless
action. He swiftly attains the profound tranquillity of eradicating
the vicious cycle of recurring birth and death.

40) One who is a fool devoid of scriptural knowledge, just like an
ignorant animal; or who, in spite of possessing knowledge of the
scriptures is devoid of faith in their substance, due to being
distracted by many diverse philosophies; or who possesses some
faith, yet thinks, "Will I succeed or not?" any person whose heart
is seized by doubt in this way can never achieve actual good
fortune. Such a doubting soul does not attain happiness either in
this life or the next, since the anxiety of uncertainty vanquishes his
peace.
41) O Dhananjaya, after renouncing all actions by following the
path of selfless action, one who destroys all doubts by following
the path of divine knowledge and realizes his internal divine
nature, can certainly never be implicated by any action.

42) Therefore, O Bharata, with the sword of divine knowledge,
slash to shreds all these doubts in your heart, which are born of
ignorance alone. Take refuge in selfless duty, and arise for battle.

INDEX