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ARJUNA:
YET, Krishna! at the one time thou dost laud | |
| Surcease of works, and, at another time, | |
| Service through work. Of these twain plainly tell | |
| Which is the better way? | |
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KRISHNA:
To cease from works | 5 |
| Is well, and to do works in holiness | |
| Is well; and both conduct to bliss supreme; | |
| But of these twain the better way is his | |
| Who working piously refraineth not. | |
| |
| That is the true Renouncer, firm and fixed, | 10 |
| Who—seeking nought, rejecting nought—dwells proof | |
| Against the “opposites.” 1 O valiant Prince! | |
| In doing, such breaks lightly from all deed: | |
| ’Tis the new scholar talks as they were two, | |
| This Sânkhya and this Yôga: wise men know | 15 |
| Who husbands one plucks golden fruit of both! | |
| The region of high rest which Sânkhyans reach | |
| Yogins attain. Who sees these twain as one | |
| Sees with clear eyes! Yet such abstraction, Chief! | |
| Is hard to win without much holiness. | 20 |
| Whose is fixed in holiness, self-ruled, | |
| Pure-hearted, lord of senses and of self, | |
| Lost in the common life of all which lives— | |
| A “Yôgayukt”—he is a Saint who wends | |
| Straightway to Brahm. Such an one is not touched | 25 |
| By taint of deeds. “Nought of myself I do!” | |
| Thus will he think—who holds the truth of truths— | |
| In seeing, hearing, touching, smelling; when | |
| He eats, or goes, or breathes; slumbers or talks, | |
| Holds fast or loosens, opes his eyes or shuts; | 30 |
| Always assured “This is the sense-world plays | |
| With senses.” He that acts in thought of Brahm, | |
| Detaching end from act, with act content, | |
| The world of sense can no more stain his soul | |
| Than waters mar th’ enamelled lotus-leaf. | 35 |
| With life, with heart, with mind,—nay, with the help | |
| Of all five senses—letting selfood go— | |
| Yogins toil ever towards their souls’ release. | |
| Such votaries, renouncing fruit of deeds, | |
| Gain endless peace: the unvowed, the passion-bound, | 40 |
| Seeking a fruit from works, are fastened down. | |
| The embodied sage, withdrawn within his soul, | |
| At every act sits godlike in “the town | |
| Which hath nine gateways,” 2 neither doing aught | |
| Nor causing any deed. This world’s Lord makes | 45 |
| Neither the work, nor passion for the work, | |
| Nor lust for fruit of work; the man’s own self | |
| Pushes to these! The Master of this World | |
| Takes on himself the good or evil deeds | |
| Of no man—dwelling beyond! Mankind errs here | 50 |
| By folly, darkening knowledge. But, for whom | |
| That darkness of the soul is chased by light, | |
| Splendid and clear shines manifest the Truth | |
| As if a Sun of Wisdom sprang to shed | |
| Its beams of dawn. Him mediating still, | 55 |
| Him seeking, with Him blended, stayed on Him, | |
| The souls illuminated take that road | |
| Which hath no turning back—their sins flung off | |
| By strength of faith. [Who will may have this Light; | |
| Who hath it sees.] To him who wisely sees, | 60 |
| The Brahman with his scrolls and sanctities, | |
| The cow, the elephant, the unclean dog, | |
| The Outcast gorging dog’s meat, are all one. | |
| |
| The world is overcome—aye! even here! | |
| By such as fix their faith on Unity. | 65 |
| The sinless Brahma dwells in Unity, | |
| And they in Brahma. Be not over-glad | |
| Attaining joy, and be not over-sad | |
| Encountering grief, but, stayed on Brahma, still | |
| Constant let each abide! The sage whose soul | 70 |
| Holds off from outer contacts, in himself | |
| Finds bliss; to Brahma joined by piety, | |
| His spirit tastes eternal peace. The joys | |
| Springing from sense-life are but quickening wombs | |
| Which breed sure griefs: those joys begin and end! | 75 |
| The wise mind takes no pleasure, Kunti’s Son! | |
| In such as those! But if a man shall learn, | |
| Even while he lives and bears his body’s chain, | |
| To master lust and anger, he is blest! | |
| He is the Yukta; he hath happiness, | 80 |
| Contentment, light, within: his life is merged | |
| In Brahma’s life; he doth Nirvâna touch! | |
| Thus go the Rishis unto rest, who dwell | |
| With sins effaced, with doubts at end, with hearts | |
| Governed and calm. Glad in all good they live, | 85 |
| Nigh to the peace of God; and all those live | |
| Who pass their days exempt from greed and wrath, | |
| Subduing self and senses, knowing the Soul! | |
| |
| The Saint who shuts outside his placid soul | |
| All touch of sense, letting no contact through; | 90 |
| Whose quiet eyes gaze straight from fixëd brows, | |
| Whose outward breath and inward breath are drawn | |
| Equal and slow through nostrils still and close; | |
| That one—with organs, heart, and mind constrained, | |
| Bent on deliverance, having put away | 95 |
| Passion, and fear, and rage;—hath, even now, | |
| Obtained deliverance, ever and ever freed. | |
| Yea; for he knows Me Who am He that heeds | |
| The sacrifice and worship, God revealed; | |
| And He who heeds not, being Lord of Worlds, | 100 |
| Lover of all that lives, God unrevealed, | |
| Wherein who will shall find surety and shield! | |
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Here ends Chapter V. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, entitled | |
“Karmasanyâsayog,” or “The Book of Religion | |
by Renouncing Fruit of Works” | 105 |
