CHAPTER 5:
THE YOGA OF WORK IN DETACHMENT
About the reality of
detachment.
(1) Arjuna said:
'Krishna, You praise the renunciation of fruitive labor as well as the practice of yoga. Please tell me which
one is definitely more beneficial of the two.'
(2) The Supreme
Lord replied: 'Renouncing and also action in yoga both lead to the path
of liberation, but compared to the renunciation of fruitive labor, the
action in yoga is the better of the two. (3) He should always be known as a renouncing
one who never likes or dislikes and who is free from the duality, as
certainly, o mighty armed one, he is happy who is liberated from being
bound that way. (4)
The less intelligent see the analytic and the work of yoga as
different, but not so the learned ones. Situated in either one of them
one will enjoy the complete of the result of both. (5) He who places what one achieves by analysis
at the same level as what one achieves by work done in yoga and thus
sees study and selfless action as one, actually sees it as it is.
(6) But,
renunciation, o mighty armed one, will afflict distress if one is
without devotion, while a thinker united in selfless action reaches the
Supreme without delay. (7)
Connected in yoga a purified soul, who is self-controlled and has
mastered his senses, is in compassion with all living beings and
although engaged in action he is never affected. (8-9) 'In divine consciousness I certainly never
do anything' thus thinks one who knows the truth in his seeing,
hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, dreaming and breathing.
Despite of his talking, forsaking, accepting, opening and closing his
eyes he considers it as an engagement of the senses. (10) He who dedicates all his works to the
spiritual forsaking of his attachments is never affected by sin like a
lotusleaf is in the water. (11)
With their body, mind and intelligence purified yogis even with their
senses are acting in giving up the attachments for the sake of the
soul. (12) United in
giving up the fruits they unflinching attain perfect peace while the
ones unconnected in the desire to enjoy the results are entrapped in
attachment.
(13) By his
thinking giving up all activities and remaining in happiness, the one
who is controlled resides in the city of nine gates and thus the
embodied soul for sure never does anything nor does he cause anything. (14) Never is he the one engaging in action nor
does the master induce others to act, nor is he identified with the
results, as all is done by nature. (15) Never is the one of power responsible for the sins or
pious activities of anyone; it is the spiritual knowledge that is
covered by ignorance because of which the living beings are bewildered.
(16) But to the
living entity whose nescience is destroyed by knowledge, that knowledge
discloses the Supreme Reality like the rising sun. (17) With one's intelligence to that, self to
that, faith to that and refuge in that, one will, being cleansed from
all misgivings by that knowledge, not return again. (18) In a gentle brahmin fully educated, in a
cow, in an elephant and surely also in an outcast, see those who are
wise the soul with equal vision. (19) In this life certainly those have conquered
birth and death who in sameness have a fixed mind flawless in the
equanimity of the Supreme Spirit of which they are situated in the
Supreme. (20)
Never rejoicing on achieving the pleasant nor getting agitated arriving
at the unpleasant, intelligent of his own and unbewildered, he who
knows the spiritual is situated in transcendence.
(21) The one who
is not attached to superficial pleasures finds, by concentrating on the
spiritual of being connected in the soul, in the self the happiness
which is enjoyed as being unlimited. (22) In that which certainly by the contact with
the senses is a source of misery, the intelligent never take delight,
as that certainly is subjected to having a beginning and an end, o son
of Kuntî. (23)
He who in this material body is able to tolerate the lust
and anger generated from the urges, before the body is forsaken, is a composed and happy human being. (24)
Surely anyone who happy from within takes pleasure in the self and
dwells on the inner light is a yogi who selfrealized attains liberation
in the Supreme. (25)
Those achieve that spiritual liberation who live the inner life and are
spotless; they are beyond the duality in selfrealization and are
engaged in work for the welfare of all living beings. (26) The mind of renounced persons who are
liberated from lust and anger is under full control and for them who
learned from the soul there is in the near future the guarantee of
spiritual enlightenment. (27-28) Turned away from the unnecessary in the outer world not
looking for it and concentrated between the eyebrows in suspending the
in- and outgoing breath keeping the air with it in his nose, are the
senses, mind and intelligence of the transcendentalist set to
liberation as one who has discarded all wishes, fear and anger is
surely always of that liberation. (29) One who knows Me as the beneficiary of
sacrifices, penances and austerities, as the Supreme Lord of all the
worlds and as the benefactor of all living beings, thus attains peace.
Spoken by Anand Aadhar Prabhu
to the text offered below