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  "chapter": {
    "num": 18,
    "slug": "18-discourse-18-the-yoga-of-liberation-by-renunciation",
    "title": "Discourse 18: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation",
    "of": 18,
    "words": 2035,
    "text": "## Discourse 18: The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation\n\n\nVerse 18:1: Arjuna said: I desire to know severally the essence of renunciation, O mighty- \narmed, and of abandonment, O Hrishikesha, as also of each apart, O slayer of Keshi. \n\nVerse 18:2: The Blessed Lord said: Sages understand as renunciation the renouncing of \nworks with desire; the wise declare the abandonment of the fruit of all works as \nabandonment. \n\nVerse 18:3: \"Action should be abandoned as an evil,\" say some learned men; \"acts of \nsacrifice, gift and austerity should not be abandoned,\" say others. \n\nVerse 18:4: Hear My conclusions as to that abandonment, O best of the Bharatas; \nabandonment, verily, O tiger of men, has been explained as threefold. \n\nVerse 18:5: Acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity should not be abandoned, but should be \nperformed; sacrifice, gift and also austerity are the purifiers of the intelligent. \n\nVerse 18:6: But even these actions should be performed under the abandonment of \nattachment and the fruit; such, O Partha, is My certain and best belief. \n\nVerse 18:7: Verily renunciation of a required action is not proper; the abandonment thereof \nfrom delusion is said to be of darkness. \n\nVerse 18:8: He who abandoneth an action from fear of physical suffering, saying \"it is \npainful,\" thus performing a passionate abandonment, obtaineth not the fruit of abandonment. \nVerse 18:9: He who performeth a required action, O Arjuna, saying, \"it ought to be done,\" \nabandoning attachment and fruit also, that abandonment is regarded as pure. \n\nVerse 18:10: The abandoner, filled with purity, intelligent, with various doubts dispelled, \nhateth not unpleasurable action, nor is attached to pleasurable. \n\nVerse 18:11: For verily it is not possible for an embodied being to abandon actions \ncompletely; but he who abandoneth the fruit of action is said to be an abandoner. \n\nVerse 18:12: Good, evil and mixed—threefold is the fruit of action hereafter for the non- \nabandoners; but there is none ever for the renouncers. \n\nVerse 18:13: Learn from Me, O mighty-armed, these five causes, as declared in the Sankhya \nsystem, for the accomplishment of all actions: \n\nVerse 18:14: The body, the actor, the various organs, the diverse kinds of energies, and the \npresiding deities also, the fifth. \n\nVerse 18:15: Whatever action a man performeth by his body, speech and mind, whether \nright or the reverse, these five are the causes thereof. \n\nVerse 18:16: That being so, he verily who—owing to untrained Reason—looketh on the \nSelf, which is isolated, as the actor, he seeth not, a man of perverted intelligence. \n\nVerse 18:17: He who is free from the egoistic notion, whose Reason is not affected, though \nhe slay these peoples, he slayeth not, nor is he bound by the action. \n\nVerse 18:18: Knowledge, the knowable and the knower, the threefold impulse to action; the \norgan, the action, the actor, the threefold constituents of action. \n\nVerse 18:19: Knowledge, action and actor in the category of qualities are also said to be \nthreefold, from the difference of qualities; hear thou also these duly. \n\nVerse 18:20: That by which one indestructible Being is seen in all beings, inseparate in the \nseparated, know thou that knowledge as pure. \n\nVerse 18:21: But that khowledge which regardeth the several existences of various kinds in \nall beings as separate, know thou that knowledge as passionate. \n\nVerse 18:22: While that which clingeth to each one thing as if it were the whole, without \nreason, without its real object and narrow, that is declared to be dark. \n\nVerse 18:23: An action which is ordained, done by one is unattached to fruit, devoid of \nattachment or repulsion, that is called pure. \n\nVerse 18:24: But that action that is done by one longing for desires, or again with egoism, or \nwith much effort, that is declared to be passionate. \n\nVerse 18:25: The action undertaken from delusion, without regard to capacity and to \nconsequences—loss and injury to others—that is declared to be dark. \n\nVerse 18:26: Liberated from attachment, not egoistic, endued with firmness and confidence, \nunchanged by success or failure, that actor is called pure. \n\nVerse 18:27: Passionate, desiring to obtain the fruit of action, greedy, harmful, impure, \nmoved by joy and sorrow, such an actor is pronounced passionate. \n\nVerse 18:28: Discordant, vulgar, stubborn, cheating, malicious, indolent, despairful and \nprocrastinating, such an actor is called dark. \n\nVerse 18:29: The threefold division of Reason and of firmness also, according to the \nqualities, hear thou related unreservedly and severally, O Dhananjaya. \n\nVerse 18:30: That which knoweth energy and abstinence, what ought to be done and what \nought not to be done, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation, that Reason is pure, O \nPartha. \n\nVerse 18:31: That by which one wrongly understandeth Right and Wrong, and also what \nought to be done and what ought not to be done, that Reason, O Partha, is passionate. \n\nVerse 18:32: That which, enwrapped in darkness, thinketh wrong to be right, and seeth all \nthings subverted, that Reason, O Partha, is dark. \n\nVerse 18:33: The firmness by which one holdeth fast the functions of the mind, of the life- \nbreaths and of the senses, through yoga, unswerving, that firmness, O Partha, is pure. \n\nVerse 18:34: But the firmness, O Arjuna, by which one holdeth fast duty, pleasure and \nwealth from attachment, desiring the fruit, that firmness, O Partha, is passionate. \n\nVerse 18:35: That by which one from stupidity doth not abandon sleep, fear, grief, despair \nand also vanity, that firmness, O Partha, is dark. \n\nVerse 18:36: And now the threefold happiness hear thou from Me, O bull of the Bharatas. \nThat in which one rejoiceth by practice, and in which he findeth the end of pain; \n\nVerse 18:37: That which at first is as venom but in the end is as nectar; that happiness is \nsaid to be pure, born of the blissful knowledge of the Self. \n\nVerse 18:38: That happiness which from the union of the senses with their objects at first is \nas nectar, but in the end is as venom, that is held to be passionate. \n\nVerse 18:39: That happiness which in the beginning and in its consequence is delusive of \nthe self, arising from sleep, indolence and heedlessness, that is declared dark. \n\nVerse 18:40: There is not an entity on earth, or again in heaven among the Shining Ones, \nthat is liberated from these three qualities born of Matter. \n\nVerse 18:41: Of Brahmanas, Kshattriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, O Parantapa, the duties \nhave been distributed, according to the qualities born of their own natures. \n\nVerse 18:42: Serenity, self-restraint, austerity, purity, forgiveness and also uprightness, \nwisdom, knowledge, belief in God, are the Brahmana-duty, born of his own nature. \n\nVerse 18:43: Prowess, splendour, firmness, dexterity, and also not flying from battle, \ngenerosity, the nature of a ruler, are the Kshattriya-duty, born of his own nature. \n\nVerse 18:44: Ploughing, protection of kine, and trade, are the Vaishya-duty, born of his own \nnature. Action of the nature of service is the Shudra-duty, born of his own nature. \n\nVerse 18:45: Man reacheth perfection by each being intent on his own duty. How he findeth \nperfection who is intent on his own duty, that hear thou. \n\nVerse 18:46: He from whom is the emanation of beings, by whom all This is pervaded, by \nworshipping Him in his own duty, a man winneth perfection. \n\nVerse 18:47: Better is one’s own duty though destitute of merit than the duty of another \nwell-performed. He who doeth the duty laid down by his own nature incurreth not sin. \n\nVerse 18:48: Congenital duty, O son of Kunti, though defective, ought not to be abandoned. \nAll undertakings indeed are clouded by defects as fire by smoke. \n\nVerse 18:49: He whose Reason is everywhere unattached, the self subdued, dead to desires, \nhe by renunciation attaineth the supreme perfection of freedom from action. \n\nVerse 18:50: How he who hath attained perfection also attaineth to the Eternal, hear thou, \nonly in brief, O Kaunteya, for that is the supreme state of wisdom. \n\nVerse 18:51: United to the Reason, purified, controlling the self by firmness, having \nabandoned sound and the other objects of the senses, having laid aside passion and malice, \nVerse 18:52: Dwelling in solitude, abstemious, speech, body and mind subdued, constantly \nunited by yoga to meditation, taking refuge in dispassion, \n\nVerse 18:53: Having cast aside egoism, violence, arrogance, desire, wrath, covetousness, \nselfless and peaceful—he is fit to become the Eternal. \n\nVerse 18:54: Becoming the Eternal, serene in the Self, he neither grieveth nor desireth; the \nsame to all beings, he obtaineth supreme devotion unto Me. \n\nVerse 18:55: By devotion he knoweth Me in essence, who and what I am; having thus \nknown Me in essence, he forthwith entereth into the Supreme. \n\nVerse 18:56: Though ever performing all actions, taking refuge in Me, by My favour he \nobtaineth the eternal indestructible abode. \n\nVerse 18:57: Mentally renouncing all actions in Me, intent on Me, taking refuge in the yoga \nof discrimination, have thy thought ever on Me. \n\nVerse 18:58: Thinking on Me, thou shalt overcome all obstacles by My favour; but if from \negoism thou wilt not hear, thou shalt be destroyed utterly. \n\nVerse 18:59: Entrenched in egoism, thou thinkest, \"I will not fight\"; to no purpose is thy \ndetermination; nature will constrain thee. \n\nVerse 18:60: O son of Kunti, bound by thine own duty born of thine own nature, that which \nfrom delusion thou desirest not to do, even that helplessly thou shalt perform. \n\nVerse 18:61: The Lord dwelleth in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, by His illusive power \ncausing all beings to revolve, as though mounted on a potter’s wheel. \n\nVerse 18:62: Flee unto Him for shelter with all thy being, O Bharata; by His favour thou \nshalt obtain supreme peace and the everlasting dwelling-place. \n\nVerse 18:63: Thus hath wisdom, more secret than secrecy itself, been declared unto thee by \nMe; having reflected on it fully, then act as thou listest. \n\nVerse 18:64: Listen thou again to My supreme word, most secret of all; beloved art thou of \nMe, and steadfast in heart, therefore will I speak for thy benefit. \n\nVerse 18:65: Merge thy mind in Me, be My devotee, sacrifice to Me, prostrate thyself \nbefore Me, thou shalt come even to Me. I pledge thee My troth; thou art dear to Me. \n\nVerse 18:66: Abandoning all duties, come unto Me alone for shelter; sorrow not, I will \nliberate thee from all sins. \n\nVerse 18:67: Never is this to be spoken by thee to anyone who is without asceticism, nor \nwithout devotion, nor one who desireth not to listen, nor yet to him who speaketh evil of \nMe. \n\nVerse 18:68: He who shall declare this supreme secret among My devotees, having shown \nthe highest devotion for Me, without doubt he shall come to Me. \n\nVerse 18:69: Nor is there any among men who performeth dearer service to Me than he, nor \nany other shall be more beloved by Me on earth than he. \n\nVerse 18:70: And he who shall study this sacred dialogue of ours, by him I shall be \nworshipped with the sacrifice of wisdom. Such is My mind. \n\nVerse 18:71: The man also who, full of faith, merely heareth it uncarping, even he, freed \nfrom evil, shall attain the happy regions of the righteous. \n\nVerse 18:72: Has this been heard, O son of Pritha, with one-pointed mind? Has thy \ndelusion, caused by unwisdom, been destroyed, O Dhananjaya? \n\nVerse 18:73: Arjuna said: Destroyed is my delusion. I have gained knowledge through Thy \nfavour, O Immutable one. I am firm, my doubts have fled away. I will do according to Thy \nword. \n\nVerse 18:74: Sanjaya said: I heard this marvellous dialogue of Vasudeva and of the great- \nsouled Partha, causing my hair to stand on end. \n\nVerse 18:75: By the favour of Vyasa I listened to this secret and supreme yoga from the \nLord of Yoga, Krishna Himself speaking before mine eyes. \n\nVerse 18:76: O King, remembering, remembering this marvellous and holy dialogue \nbetween Keshava and Arjuna, I rejoice again and again. \n\nVerse 18:77: Remembering, remembering, also that most marvellous form of Hari, great is \nmy wonder, O King. I rejoice, again and again. \n\nVerse 18:78: Wherever is Krishna, Yoga’s Lord, wherever is Partha, the archer, assured are \nthere prosperity, victory and happiness. So I think.",
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