Chapter 5कर्मसन्न्यासयोगःKarma Sannyasa Yoga

Arjuna's question and the answer (5.1–5.6). Arjuna asks — you praise the renunciation of action and also yoga; tell me the one of these two that is definitely better (5.1). Krishna: both bring the highest good, but karma yoga is superior to the renunciation of action (5.2). One who neither hates nor desires is a constant renunciate (5.3). It is children, not the wise, who call Sāṅkhya and yoga different (5.4–5.5). Renunciation is hard without yoga; the sage steadfast in yoga swiftly attains Brahman (5.6).

Untainted while acting (5.7–5.13). One steadfast in yoga, pure in self, who knows the self of all beings as their own self, is not tainted even while acting (5.7). The knower of truth — "I do nothing at all" — while seeing, hearing, breathing: the senses are moving among their objects (5.8–5.9). Action offered to Brahman is like a lotus leaf (5.10); the yogi acts for self-purification (5.11); the steadfast attain lasting peace, the unsteady are bound by desire (5.12). Having renounced all actions with the mind, the embodied one lives happily in the city of nine gates (5.13).

Doership and ignorance (5.14–5.17). The Lord does not create doership, action or the link with its fruit — nature drives it all (5.14); the all-pervading one takes on no one's sin or merit; knowledge is covered by ignorance (5.15); for those whose ignorance is destroyed, knowledge, like the sun, reveals the Supreme (5.16); intellect in That, self in That, steadfast in That, devoted to That — no return (5.17).

Equal vision (5.18–5.20). In a brahmin endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a shvapaka, the wise see the same (5.18); those whose mind rests in equality have conquered the world here itself — Brahman is flawless and the same (5.19); the knower of Brahman stays steady in the pleasant and the unpleasant (5.20).

The happiness within (5.21–5.26). One unattached to outer contacts finds imperishable happiness within (5.21); pleasures born of contact are wombs of sorrow, with a beginning and an end (5.22); one who withstands the force of desire and anger until death is steadfast and happy (5.23); happiness within, delight within, light within — brahma-nirvana (5.24); the rishis devoted to the welfare of all beings (5.25); for ascetics free of desire and anger, brahma-nirvana is all around (5.26).

The formula of meditation and the close (5.27–5.29). Objects kept outside, gaze between the eyebrows, prana and apana made even — the sage freed from desire, fear and anger is ever free (5.27–5.28). Knowing Me as the enjoyer of yajna and austerity, the great Lord of all the worlds and the friend of all beings, one attains peace (5.29).