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Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 5
Karma Sanyasa Yoga
The Yoga of Renunciation
Both paths — renunciation and engaged action — lead home, but engaged action done with detachment excels. The lotus leaf untouched by water is the central image: fully in the world, never soaked by it.
All 29 verses
Each verse links to its full Sanskrit text, transliteration, plain-English meaning, key learning and practical application.
Gita 5.1saṃnyāsaṃ karmaṇāṃ kṛṣṇa punaryogaṃ ca śaṃsasi | yacchreya etayorekaṃ tanme brūh…Arjuna said: You praise renunciation of actions, O Krishna, and again yoga of action. Tell me decisively which one is th…Gita 5.2saṃnyāsaḥ karmayogaśca niḥśreyasakarāvubhau | tayostu karmasaṃnyāsātkarmayogo vi…The Blessed Lord said: Both renunciation and the yoga of action lead to the highest good; but of the two, the yoga of ac…Gita 5.3jñeyaḥ sa nityasaṃnyāsī yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati | nirdvandvo hi mahābāho sukhaṃ…Know that one to be a perpetual renunciant who neither hates nor desires; free from the pairs of opposites, O mighty- ar…Gita 5.4-5sāṅkhyayogau pṛthagbālāḥ pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ | ekamapyāsthitaḥ samyagubhayorv…Only children, not the wise, speak of Sankhya and Yoga as different; one established in either obtains the fruit of both…Gita 5.6saṃnyāsastu mahābāho duḥkhamāptumayogataḥ | yogayukto munirbrahma nacireṇādhigac…But renunciation, O mighty-armed one, is hard to attain without yoga; the sage harmonised in yoga reaches Brahman withou…Gita 5.7yogayukto viśuddhātmā vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ | sarvabhūtātmabhūtātmā kurvannapi n…One harmonised in yoga, pure of self, victorious over the self, with senses conquered, whose self has become the Self of…Gita 5.8-9naiva kiñcitkaromīti yukto manyeta tattvavit | paśyañśṛṇvanspṛśañjighrannaśnanga…‘I do nothing at all’, thus thinks the harmonised knower of truth, even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eatin…Gita 5.10brahmaṇyādhāya karmāṇi saṅgaṃ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ | lipyate na sa pāpena padmapat…One who acts, placing all actions in Brahman, abandoning attachment, is untouched by sin, as a lotus leaf is untouched b…Gita 5.11kāyena manasā buddhyā kevalairindriyairapi | yoginaḥ karma kurvanti saṅgaṃ tyakt…With body, mind, intellect, and even the senses alone, yogis perform action, abandoning attachment, for the purification…Gita 5.12yuktaḥ karmaphalaṃ tyaktvā śāntimāpnoti naiṣṭhikīm | ayuktaḥ kāmakāreṇa phale sa…The harmonised one, abandoning the fruit of action, attains abiding peace; the unharmonised, attached to fruit by the fo…Gita 5.13sarvakarmāṇi manasā saṃnyasyāste sukhaṃ vaśī | navadvāre pure dehī naiva kurvann…Mentally renouncing all actions, the embodied one sits happily as ruler in the city of nine gates, neither acting nor ca…Gita 5.14-15na kartṛtvaṃ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ | na karmaphalasaṃyogaṃ svabhāvas…The Lord creates neither agency nor actions for the world, nor the union of action with its fruit; it is nature that ope…Gita 5.16jñānena tu tadajñānaṃ yeṣāṃ nāśitamātmanaḥ | teṣāmādityavajjñānaṃ prakāśayati ta…But for those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, that knowledge, like the sun, illumines the Supreme…Gita 5.17tadbuddhayastadātmānastanniṣṭhāstatparāyaṇāḥ | gacchantyapunarāvṛttiṃ jñānanirdh…With intellect absorbed in That, with self fixed on That, established in That, devoted to That, they go whence there is …Gita 5.18vidyāvinayasampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini | śuni caiva śvapāke ca paṇḍitāḥ samad…The wise see with equal vision a brahmin endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcast.Gita 5.19ihaiva tairjitaḥ sargo yeṣāṃ sāmye sthitaṃ manaḥ | nirdoṣaṃ hi samaṃ brahma tasm…Even here is birth conquered by those whose mind rests in equality; Brahman is flawless and equal, therefore they are es…Gita 5.20na prahṛṣyetpriyaṃ prāpya nodvijetprāpya cāpriyam | sthirabuddhirasammūḍho brahm…One should not rejoice on obtaining the pleasant nor be perturbed on obtaining the unpleasant, firm of understanding, un…Gita 5.21bāhyasparśeṣvasaktātmā vindatyātmani yatsukham | sa brahmayogayuktātmā sukhamakṣ…With the self unattached to external contacts, one finds the happiness that is in the Self; with the self harmonised in …Gita 5.22ye hi saṃsparśajā bhogā duḥkhayonaya eva te | ādyantavantaḥ kaunteya na teṣu ram…The enjoyments born of contact are wombs of sorrow, having a beginning and an end, O son of Kunti; the wise do not delig…Gita 5.23śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṃ prākśarīravimokṣaṇāt | kāmakrodhodbhavaṃ vegaṃ sa yuktaḥ…One who, even here, before liberation from the body, can withstand the surge of desire and anger, that one is harmonised…Gita 5.24-26yo'ntaḥsukho'ntarārāmastathāntarjyotireva yaḥ | sa yogī brahmanirvāṇaṃ brahmabhū…One whose happiness is within, whose delight is within, whose light is within, that yogi, becoming Brahman, attains the …Gita 5.27-28sparśānkṛtvā bahirbāhyāṃścakṣuścaivāntare bhruvoḥ | prāṇāpānau samau kṛtvā nāsāb…Shutting out external contacts, fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, equalising the outgoing and incoming breaths movin…Gita 5.29bhoktāraṃ yajñatapasāṃ sarvalokamaheśvaram | suhṛdaṃ sarvabhūtānāṃ jñātvā māṃ śā…Knowing Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord of all worlds, the friend of all beings, one att…
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All 18 chapters
1Arjuna Vishada YogaThe Yoga of Arjuna's Despair2Sankhya YogaThe Yoga of Knowledge3Karma YogaThe Yoga of Action4Jnana Karma Sanyasa YogaKnowledge & Renunciation of Action5Karma Sanyasa YogaThe Yoga of Renunciation6Dhyana YogaThe Yoga of Meditation7Jnana Vijnana YogaKnowledge of the Absolute8Akshara Brahma YogaThe Imperishable Absolute9Raja Vidya Raja Guhya YogaThe Royal Knowledge & Royal Secret10Vibhuti YogaThe Yoga of Divine Glories11Vishvarupa Darshana YogaThe Vision of the Universal Form12Bhakti YogaThe Yoga of Devotion13Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga YogaThe Field & the Knower of the Field14Gunatraya Vibhaga YogaThe Three Gunas15Purushottama YogaThe Supreme Person16Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga YogaThe Divine & Demonic Natures17Shraddhatraya Vibhaga YogaThe Three Kinds of Faith18Moksha Sanyasa YogaLiberation through Renunciation