5

Karma Sanyasa Yoga

The Yoga of Renunciation of Action

32 verses

1
Verse 5.1

Arjuna demands clarity: 'Stop praising both paths--tell me once and for all which one is truly better!'

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2
Verse 5.2

Both paths lead to liberation, but engaged action in yoga surpasses the mere abandonment of action.

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3
Verse 5.3

The true renunciate is not one who abandons action but one who has abandoned craving and aversion--free from the pull of opposites, liberation comes effortlessly.

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4
Verse 5.4

The childish argue over paths while the wise see that one road deeply traveled reaches both destinations.

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5
Verse 5.5

The destination reached by knowledge is the same reached by action—who sees these as one truly sees.

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6
Verse 5.6

Renunciation without yoga leads only to suffering; the sage joined with yoga swiftly reaches the Infinite.

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7
Verse 5.7

When your awareness expands to embrace all beings as your own self, action flows through you without leaving any stain—like water through a lotus leaf.

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8
Verse 5.8

The knower of truth witnesses life's endless activities—seeing, hearing, touching—while knowing with absolute certainty: 'I do nothing at all.'

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9
Verse 5.9

Speaking, releasing, grasping, even blinking—the wise one holds firm to this truth: it is merely the senses moving among their objects, nothing more.

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10
Verse 5.10

Offer your actions to the Infinite and remain untouched by their consequences--like a lotus leaf that floats on water yet never gets wet.

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10
Verse 5.10

Offer your actions to the Infinite and remain untouched by their consequences--like a lotus leaf that floats on water yet never gets wet.

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11
Verse 5.11

The yogi acts with body, mind, intellect, and senses--but only these, without the 'I'--using action itself as the fire that purifies the self.

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11
Verse 5.11

The yogi acts with body, mind, intellect, and senses--but only these, without the 'I'--using action itself as the fire that purifies the self.

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12
Verse 5.12

The one united with truth finds lasting peace by releasing fruits of action; the disconnected one, driven by desire and attached to results, binds themselves in chains.

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12
Verse 5.12

The one united with truth finds lasting peace by releasing fruits of action; the disconnected one, driven by desire and attached to results, binds themselves in chains.

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13
Verse 5.13

The wise soul dwells as a contented witness in the body's city of nine gates—neither acting nor causing action, merely observing the play of nature.

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14
Verse 5.14

The true Self creates neither doership nor actions nor their fruits—it is nature alone that acts, while the Self remains eternally uninvolved.

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15
Verse 5.15

The all-pervading Self neither inherits your sin nor your virtue—it is ignorance veiling knowledge that creates the delusion of bondage.

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16
Verse 5.16

When knowledge destroys ignorance, what remains illumines the Supreme like the sun revealing a world that was always there.

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17
Verse 5.17

When your intellect, self-identity, stability, and ultimate devotion all merge into That, sins washed away by knowledge, you reach the point of no return.

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18
Verse 5.18

The truly wise see the same sacred presence in the learned brahmin, the cow, the elephant, the dog, and the outcaste--this equal vision is the mark of genuine realization.

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19
Verse 5.19

Conquer death before dying—when your mind rests equally in all circumstances, you have already transcended the wheel of birth.

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20
Verse 5.20

The enlightened one is not tossed by life's waves—neither elated by gain nor devastated by loss—because they know themselves as the ocean.

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21
Verse 5.21

When you stop begging the world for happiness, you discover you are the source—and that source never runs dry.

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22
Verse 5.22

Every pleasure born from external contact carries within it the seed of its own sorrow--the wise see through this deception and refuse to build their house on shifting sand.

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23
Verse 5.23

Mastery isn't suppressing the storm of desire and anger but standing unmoved while it rages--whoever achieves this before death has found the only happiness that is not borrowed.

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24
Verse 5.24

When your happiness needs nothing outside, when your delight requires no external playground, when your illumination depends on no borrowed light--you have not just found God, you have become what God is.

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25
Verse 5.25

Liberation comes not through escape from the world but through purification, clarity, self-mastery, and wholehearted dedication to universal welfare.

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26
Verse 5.26

For those who have conquered desire and anger, controlled their minds, and known the Self—liberation exists everywhere, surrounding them on all sides.

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27
Verse 5.27

The gateway to liberation opens through shutting out external distractions, focusing attention at the third eye, and balancing the breath within the nostrils—the beginning of yogic meditation.

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28
Verse 5.28

The sage who masters breath, sense, and mind while releasing desire, fear, and anger does not merely seek liberation—such a one IS already forever free.

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29
Verse 5.29

Knowing the Divine as the recipient of all spiritual effort, the Lord of all existence, and—most intimately—the true Friend of every being, one attains unshakeable peace.

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