Bhagavad Gita · Karma YogaChapter 3, Shloka 3 (3.3)

Two paths of steadfastness. Niṣṭhā = that in which a person remains steadily engaged — the main path of one's life.

1. Jñāna-yoga — for the sāṅkhyas: those who discriminate between the self and the not-self.
2. Karma-yoga — for the yogins: those who act while giving up attachment to results.

Shankaracharya — two different kinds of eligible seekers. Jnana-yoga is for those Sankhyas who have the discriminating knowledge of self and not-self, brahmacarya-āśramād eva kṛta-saṃnyāsānām — who took up renunciation straight from the stage of brahmacharya, paramahamsa renunciates established in Brahman; karma-yoga is for the karmins (people of action). And he draws the conclusion: tasmāt kayāpi yuktyā na samuccayo jñāna-karmaṇoḥ — by no reasoning whatsoever can knowledge and action be combined. If both were meant for one and the same person at the same time, why would the Lord prescribe them for different people? In his commentary on this verse, Shankara describes these paths as being for the traivarṇika (the three varnas) who are eligible according to scripture — this is the scriptural framework of his time ().

Acharya Ramanuja — according to fitness, and in sequence. The two paths were taught yathādhikāram asaṅkīrṇā — according to eligibility, without mixing. Not every ordinary person becomes fit for jnana-yoga the moment the desire for liberation awakens. First, through action done without desire for its fruit, as worship of the Lord, the impurity of the mind is washed away and the senses grow calm; then comes fitness for jnana-nishtha. He quotes 18.46 — svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya siddhiṃ vindati mānavaḥ — by worshipping him through one's own work, a person attains perfection. According to Ramanuja: karma-yoga is for those of viṣaya-vyākula-buddhi (an understanding agitated by sense objects), jnana-yoga for those of avyākula-buddhi (an unagitated understanding) — "there is nothing contradictory or mixed in this".