Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4: The Yoga of Knowledge and Renunciation of Action

All 42 verses of Chapter 4 of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit, with English translation, per-word meanings, and Adi Shankara's commentary.

• Verse 4.1 — I taught this imperishable Yoga to Vivasvat; Vivasvat taught it to Manu; Manu taught it…
• Verse 4.2 — This, handed down thus in succession, the King-sages learnt. This Yoga, by long lapse of…
• Verse 4.3 — That same ancient Yoga has been today taught to thee by Me, seeing that thou art My…
• Verse 4.4 — Later is Thy birth, and prior the birth of Vivasvat; how am I to understand that Thou…
• Verse 4.5 — Many births of Mine have passed, as well as of thine, O Arjuna; all these I know, thou…
• Verse 4.6 — Though I am unborn, of imperishable nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet…
• Verse 4.7 — Whenever there is a decay of religion, O Bhārata, and an ascendency of irreligion, then I…
• Verse 4.8 — For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the firm…
• Verse 4.9 — Whoso knows thus My divine birth and action in truth is not born again on leaving this…
• Verse 4.10 — Free from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, purified by the…
• Verse 4.11 — Howsoever men approach Me, even so do I reward them; My path do men follow in all things…
• Verse 4.12 — They who long after success in actions sacrifice here to the Gods; for, soon in this…
• Verse 4.13 — The fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the distribution of energies and…
• Verse 4.14 — Actions pollute Me not, nor have I a desire for the fruit of actions. He who knows Me…
• Verse 4.15 — Thus knowing, men of old performed action in the hope of liberation; therefore do thou…
• Verse 4.16 — What is action? What is inaction? As to this, even the wise are deluded. I shall teach…
• Verse 4.17 — For, thou hast to know something even of action, something to know of unlawful action…
• Verse 4.18 — He who can see inaction in action, who can also see action in inaction, he is wise among…
• Verse 4.19 — He whose engagements are all devoid of desires and purposes, and whose actions have been…
• Verse 4.20 — Having abandoned attachment for the fruits of action, ever content, dependent on none…
• Verse 4.21 — Free from desire, with the mind and the self controlled, having relinquished all…
• Verse 4.22 — Satisfied with what comes to him by chance, rising above the pairs of opposites, free…
• Verse 4.23 — Of the man whose attachment is gone, who is liberated, whose mind is established in…
• Verse 4.24 — Brahman is the offering, Brahman the oblation; by Brahman is the oblation poured into the…
• Verse 4.25 — Other Yogins resort to sacrifices to Gods; in the fire of Brahman others offer the Self…
• Verse 4.26 — Others offer hearing and other senses in the fires of restraint; others offer sound and…
• Verse 4.27 — And others sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of the vitality in…
• Verse 4.28 — Others are sacrificers by their wealth, sacrificers by austerity, sacrificers by Yogas…
• Verse 4.29 — Others offer prāṇa (outgoing breath) in apāna (incoming breath), and apāna in prāṇa…
• Verse 4.30 — Others, with regulated food, offer life-breaths in life-breaths. All these are knowers of…
• Verse 4.31 — Eating of ambrosia, the remnant of the sacrifice, they go to Eternal Brahman. This world…
• Verse 4.32 — Thus manifold sacrifices are spread at the mouth of Brahman. Know them all as born of…
• Verse 4.33 — Superior is wisdom-sacrifice to the sacrifice with objects, O harasser of thy foes. All…
• Verse 4.34 — Know this: by long prostration, by enquiry, by service, those men of wisdom who have…
• Verse 4.35 — Knowing which, thou shalt not again thus fall into error, O Pāṇḍava; and by which, thou…
• Verse 4.36 — Even shouldst thou be the most sinful of all the sinful, thou shalt verily cross all sin…
• Verse 4.37 — As kindled fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does wisdom-fire reduce all actions…
• Verse 4.38 — Verily, there exists here no purifier equal to wisdom. He who is perfected by Yoga finds…
• Verse 4.39 — He obtains wisdom who is full of faith, who is devoted to it, and who has subdued the…
• Verse 4.40 — The ignorant, the faithless, and one of doubting self, is ruined. There is neither this…
• Verse 4.41 — Him who has renounced actions by Yoga, whose doubts have been cloven asunder by wisdom…
• Verse 4.42 — Therefore with the sword of wisdom cleave asunder this doubt of the Self lying in the…