5.1 Arjuna said: You praise the renunciation of actions, O Krishna, and again disciplined action. Tell me with certainty which one of these two is better.

5.2 The messenger Krishna conveyed the word of God: Renunciation and disciplined action both lead to the highest good; but of the two, disciplined action is better than renunciation of action.

5.3 He should be known as a true renouncer who neither hates nor desires; free from the pairs of opposites, O mighty-armed, he is easily released from bondage.

5.4 The childish, not the learned, speak of knowledge and discipline as different; he who is truly established in one obtains the fruit of both.

5.5 The state reached by the men of knowledge is reached also by the men of disciplined action; he sees truly who sees knowledge and action as one.

5.6 But renunciation, O mighty-armed, is hard to attain without discipline; the sage who is disciplined soon attains nearness to God.

5.7 He who is disciplined, pure in soul, who has conquered himself and his senses, whose heart is filled with compassion for all creatures of God — even though he acts, he is not tainted.

5.8 "I do nothing at all of myself," thinks the disciplined one who knows the truth — in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing,

5.9 speaking, letting go, grasping, opening and closing the eyes — holding that it is the senses that move among their objects by God's leave.

5.10 He who acts, placing his actions in God and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin, as a lotus leaf is not wetted by water.

5.11 The disciplined ones perform action with body, mind, understanding and the senses alone, abandoning attachment, for the purification of the soul.

5.12 The disciplined one, abandoning the fruit of action, attains lasting peace; the undisciplined, attached to the fruit, impelled by desire, is bound.

5.13 Renouncing all actions by the mind, the embodied soul that is master of itself dwells happily in the city of nine gates, neither acting nor causing others to act for selfish ends.

5.14 God does not create in men the sense of being the doer, nor the selfish actions, nor the bond between action and its fruit; it is man's own nature that sets these in motion.

5.15 God does not partake of the sin or the merit of anyone; knowledge is veiled by ignorance, and by this creatures are deluded.

5.16 But in those in whom this ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the soul, that knowledge, like the sun, reveals the Supreme.

5.17 Those whose understanding is fixed on God, whose souls are given to Him, who are devoted to Him alone and hold Him as their highest goal, go to the abode of no return to sin, their sins washed away by knowledge.

5.18 The wise look with an equal eye on a learned and humble Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcaste, for all are creatures of the one God.

5.19 Even here on earth the world is overcome by those whose minds are established in equality; for God is flawless and just to all, therefore they are established in God.

5.20 Let him not rejoice on obtaining what is pleasant, nor grieve on obtaining what is unpleasant; with steady understanding, undeluded, the knower of God is established in God.

5.21 He whose soul is unattached to external contacts finds the happiness that is in remembrance of God; joined in devotion to God, he enjoys imperishable happiness.

5.22 For the pleasures born of contacts are only sources of sorrow; they have a beginning and an end, O son of Kunti; the wise do not delight in them.

5.23 He who is able to endure here, before he is released from the body, the agitation born of desire and anger — he is disciplined, he is a happy man.

5.24 He who finds his happiness within, his delight within, and his light within — that disciplined one, devoted to God, attains the peace of God and nearness to Him.

5.25 The sages whose sins are destroyed, whose doubts are cut away, who are self-controlled and rejoice in the welfare of all beings, attain the peace of God.

5.26 To the ascetics who are freed from desire and anger, who have subdued their minds and know themselves, the peace of God is near on every side.

5.27 Shutting out external contacts, fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, making equal the outward and inward breaths moving within the nostrils,

5.28 the sage who has controlled the senses, mind and understanding, intent on salvation, from whom desire, fear and anger have departed — he is free for ever.

5.29 Knowing Me as the One to whom all worship and austerity are due, the Great Lord of all the worlds, the Friend of all creatures, he attains peace.