Bhagavad Gita : Chapter 5

Arjuna:
Krishna, you commend renunciation of action, and at the same time its performance. Please tell me your considered opinion on which is better of the two.

And Krishna to this:
Renunciation and performance of action both lead to fulfilment. Of the two, performance is better.

A real sanyasin is he who has no strong likes or dislikes. One who is above these opposite pairs easily frees himself of all bonds.

It is the childish who talk about sankhya-yoga and karma-yoga as different, not the learned. Whoever properly follows one gets the result of both.

Whatever position is reached by the followers of sankhya is reached by the followers of yoga also. He really sees, who sees sankhya and yoga as one and the same.

Renunciation without yoga is very difficult, Arjuna. A sanyasin practising yoga reaches the ultimate in no time.

A practitioner of yoga, his mind purified, body and senses under control, and identifying himself with all creation, is not affected, whatever he does.

A yogi who realized the truth would think that he does nothing, seeing,hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing, talking, holding, releasing, blinking, whatever, conscious that it is only the sense organs acting on their objects.

Who acts without attachment, dedicating his actions to God, will not be touched by sin, like a lotus leaf by water.

Yogis pursue without attachment their actions for self-purification, whether through body, mind or intellect, or through mere sense organs.

Such a person, not caring for results of actions, attains permanent peace.

On the other hand one, who does not practise yoga and wilfully does what he likes, would be enslaved by his obsession with results.

A self-disciplined man, mentally renouncing all actions remains at ease in his nine-gated fort, himself not doing, or causing others to do, anything.

God does not create actions or agents, nor does he award results to actions; it is only Nature that operates. He does not allot good or bad to anybody.

When intelligence is clouded by ignorance people err. When their ignorance is expelled by tue kowledge, the truth beyond will be revealed to them as if by the sun.

Their will, their mind, all their interests centered on It, fully in submission to It, all their sins blown away by knowledge, they attain immortality.

Whether it is a Brahmin, learned and trained, or a cow or elephant or dog, or a dog-eating low caste, all of them, will be same in the eyes of a self-realized man.

Here in this life are they liberated, whose mind is firmly grounded in equality.

Brahma is blemish-less and same to all, and so they also abide in Brahma.

One should not exult over getting the desired nor feel frustrated over the adverse. With a steady mind, unperturbed, and knowing the truth of Brahma, he abides in Brahma.

The joy one gets, unattached to the external senses, in one's own self, is his for ever, who becomes one with Brahma.

The sensual pleasures are sources of sorrow in the end, and are passing things. A wise man will find no pleasure in them.

Whoever is able to withstand, here before his death, the assault of lust and anger is a true yogi, and he is truly happy.

The yogi, who finds in himself happiness, entertainment and enlightenment, and who is steady in his devotion to Brahma, will be merged in Brahma.

The saints who have seen the truth, and, devoid of all blemishes, are no more subject to indecisiveness, who have full control over mind, and who are devoted to the happiness of all beings, will find eternal peace in union with the universal soul.

That peace of oneness with Brahma will embrace those self-realized sanyasins who have mastered their nature and overcome lust and angry feelings.

A yogi, in full control of senses, mind and intellect, and devoid of want, fear and frustration, who, distancing the external senses, focusing the eyes in the middle of the brows, and drawing his breath in harmony through the nose, devotes himself to the attainment of liberation, will be for ever free.

He, who understands that I am the sole receiver of all sacrifices and penances, and that I am the overlord of all the worlds, and that I am the friend of all beings, will find eternal peace.