Chapter V

Arjuna asks Krishna to clarify which path is superior: renouncing works or performing works in holiness, since Krishna seems to praise both.

Krishna states that both renouncing works and performing works in holiness are good and both lead to supreme bliss.

Krishna asserts that performing works piously while maintaining detachment is superior to mere renunciation.

Krishna defines the true renouncer as one who seeks nothing, rejects nothing, and remains unaffected by opposites while performing deeds.

Krishna argues that only uninformed scholars distinguish between Sankhya (renunciation) and Yoga (action); wise people recognize they lead to the same fruit.

Krishna states that both followers of Yoga and Sankhya reach the same region of high rest, and seeing them as one requires clear vision.

Krishna notes that achieving such philosophical abstraction without holiness is very difficult.

Krishna describes the Yogayukt as one who is fixed in holiness, self-ruled, pure-hearted, and merged in the common life of all beings.

Krishna teaches that the enlightened person maintains the attitude 'I do nothing' while perceiving that only the senses interact with their objects.

Krishna explains that one who acts for Brahm's sake, detaching results from action, remains unstained by the world like a lotus untouched by water.

Krishna states that yogins who renounce the fruits of their deeds gain endless peace, while those bound by passion seeking results remain enslaved.

Krishna describes the wise soul as dwelling in the body like a detached observer, neither acting nor causing action while performing all deeds.

Krishna asserts that the Lord does not create works, desire for work, or lust for fruits; humans themselves are driven to action by their nature.

Krishna teaches that the Master of the World takes no responsibility for the good or evil deeds of any person, dwelling beyond all moral consequence.

Krishna states that people err in moral judgment because ignorance darkens their knowledge of this truth.

Krishna describes how when spiritual darkness is dispelled by light, truth shines clearly like a sun of wisdom emerging.

Krishna teaches that souls joined with and meditating on enlightenment take an irreversible path to liberation with sins destroyed by faith.

Krishna teaches that the wise person who truly sees Brahman perceives no distinction between the refined (Brahman, cow) and the lowly (outcast, unclean dog).

Krishna states that those who fix their faith on Unity overcome the world even in this lifetime.

Krishna teaches that Brahma dwells in unity and those who achieve unity dwell in Brahma.

Krishna instructs to neither over-celebrate joy nor over-grieve sorrow, but remain constant in Brahma.

Krishna describes how the sage who withdraws from external contacts finds bliss internally and tastes eternal peace through piety.

Krishna teaches that pleasures arising from the senses produce attachment to grief and have a beginning and end.

Krishna asserts that one who learns to master lust and anger while living in a body achieves blessedness and integration with Brahma.

Krishna defines the Yukta as one who has mastered passions and possesses inner happiness, light, and merged life in Brahma.

Krishna describes how rishis (wise sages) attain peace by effacing sins, ending doubts, and governing their hearts and minds.

Krishna teaches that those living exempt from greed and wrath, subduing self and senses while knowing the Soul, approach God's peace.

Krishna describes the physical characteristics of a saint: senses withdrawn, eyes steady and fixed, breath controlled evenly.

Krishna teaches that the one with constrained organs, heart, and mind, having renounced passion, fear, and rage, obtains immediate and eternal deliverance.

Krishna reveals that he is both the God revealed in sacrifice and worship, and the unrevealed Lord of Worlds dwelling in all.