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Even if a man wishes to live for a hundred years doing his works, this is the way it must be for him — no other way exists. Done in this spirit, work

Whoever performs the Nachiketa fire rite three times, having joined with the three sources of wisdom and fulfilled the three duties, crosses over birt

Some embodied beings enter a womb to take a new body. Others go into inorganic matter — each according to their deeds and their understanding.

This is the wisdom I have given you from the standpoint of knowledge. Now listen to it from the standpoint of action. Armed with this understanding, y

On this path, no effort is wasted and no harm comes from it. Even a little of this practice protects you from great fear.

On this path, the resolute mind is focused on a single point. The minds of those without resolve branch off endlessly in many directions.

They speak of rites that promise good birth, power, and enjoyment. Their aim is sense pleasure and prosperity.

The Vedas concern themselves with the three qualities of nature. Rise above them, Arjuna. Go beyond the pairs of opposites. Stay steady, and do not co

You have the right to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruits be your motive. But do not be attached to inaction either.

Action driven by desire for results is far inferior to action done with evenness of mind. Seek refuge in this evenness. Those who work only for reward

A person with this evenness of mind casts off both good and bad actions in this life. Therefore aim for yoga. Yoga is skill in action.

The wise who act with evenness and give up the fruits of their actions are freed from the bondage of birth and reach a state beyond suffering.

Arjuna said: Krishna, if you believe that knowledge is superior to action, why are you pushing me into this terrible war?

Krishna said: Arjuna, in this world I have spoken of two paths. For those inclined toward knowledge, there is the path of knowledge. For those incline

A person does not become free from action simply by not acting. Nor does anyone reach fulfilment through renunciation alone.

No one can remain without acting even for a moment. Everyone is driven to act, whether they want to or not, by the qualities of nature.

But one who controls the senses with the mind and then engages the organs of action in work, without attachment, that person is superior.

Perform your duty. Action is better than inaction. Without action, you cannot even maintain your own body.

Action in this world leads to bondage unless it is done as an offering. Therefore, free from attachment, perform your actions as an offering.

All beings come from food. Food comes from rain. Rain comes from sacrifice. And sacrifice comes from action.

Action comes from the Vedas, and the Vedas come from the imperishable. Therefore the all-pervading Vedas are ever rooted in sacrifice.

Therefore always perform the actions that need to be done, without attachment. Through action done without attachment, a person reaches the highest.

Janaka and others reached perfection through action alone. You should also act, keeping in mind the guidance it offers to the world.

Arjuna, there is nothing in all three worlds that I need to do. There is nothing I have not attained or need to attain. And yet I keep working.

If I ever stopped working, people would follow my example and stop as well.

If I did not act, these worlds would fall apart. I would cause chaos and bring harm to all these people.

Just as people who do not know act with attachment to their work, the one who does know should act without attachment, for the benefit of the world.

The wise person should not unsettle the minds of those who are attached to their work and who do not know. Instead, acting with care, such a person sh

But the one who knows the truth about how the qualities of nature work, and how they act on their own products, understands that qualities rest on qua

Those who are fully caught up in the qualities of nature become attached to actions driven by those qualities. The knower of the whole truth should no

Those who follow this teaching of mine with faith and without complaint are freed from the bondage of actions.

Knowing the self to be beyond even the intellect, and steadying the mind through the intellect, destroy this enemy that takes the form of desire and i

Passed down in this way, the royal sages came to know it. But over a long stretch of time, that yoga was lost to the world.

The one who truly knows my divine birth and actions is not reborn after leaving the body. That person comes to me.

Those who desire the results of their rituals worship the gods here. In the human world, success from such action comes quickly.

I created the four divisions of society according to the qualities and duties of each. Though I am their creator, know me as the one who does not act

Actions do not bind me. I have no desire for the fruits of actions. One who understands this about me is not bound by actions either.

Knowing this, even the ancient seekers of liberation kept on acting. You too should act, just as those who came before you did.

Even the wise are confused about what action is and what non-action is. I will explain action to you in a way that will free you from harm.

It is worth understanding what action is. It is worth understanding what wrong action is. And it is worth understanding what non-action is. The nature

The one who sees non-action in action, and action in non-action, is wise among people. That person is balanced and has fulfilled all that needs to be

Having let go of attachment to the fruits of action, always content, not depending on anything, such a person does not really act at all, even while a

Free from desire, with the mind and senses under control, giving up all sense of possession, acting only for the body's needs, such a person incurs no

For one who is free from attachment, who is liberated, whose mind rests in knowledge, who acts only as an offering, all karma dissolves completely.

The offering is the absolute. The oblation is the absolute. It is poured by the absolute into the fire of the absolute. The one who is absorbed in act

All these many forms of sacrifice are laid out in the Vedas. Know that they all arise from action. Knowing this, you will be free.

Just as a blazing fire turns wood to ash, the fire of knowledge burns all actions to ash.

There is nothing in this world that purifies like knowledge. In time, the one who is perfected through yoga finds this knowledge within themselves.

Actions do not bind the one who has given them up through yoga, whose doubts have been cut away by knowledge, and who is steady in the self.

Arjuna said: Krishna, you praise renunciation of actions, and then you praise yoga of action. Tell me clearly which one is better.