Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 4: The Yoga of Wisdom

Source context

Theme

divine descent through successive incarnations and the path of jnana (knowledge) as liberation from action's binding force

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as a text in which Vedic philosophical wisdom, including the teaching of knowledge as spiritual path, shines forth as one of three harmoniously interpenetrating spiritual streams.
• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner treats Krishna's instruction to Arjuna—including the doctrine of the gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) and the progressive ascent through ages of consciousness—as the specific spiritual-cosmological framework within which jnana-yoga is situated in the Gita.

Cross-tradition

• Advaita VedantaShankaracharya's commentary on Discourse 4 treats jnana as the supreme means of destroying karma, identifying knowledge of the Self with liberation from rebirth — a structural parallel to the chapter's teaching that the fire of wisdom burns all actions to ash.
• Neoplatonism (Plotinus)The Plotinian doctrine of the soul's periodic descent into matter and return to the One through intellective contemplation shows cross-tradition congruence with Krishna's declaration of repeated divine descent (avatara) and the soul's ascent through discriminative knowledge.
• Kabbalah (Lurianic)The Lurianic concept of divine sparks (nitzotzot) descending through successive worlds and being elevated through da'at (knowledge-union) bears structural cross-tradition congruence with Discourse 4's account of the divine self-manifesting repeatedly to restore dharma and of wisdom as the liberating agent.

Discourse 4: The Yoga of Wisdom

4:1The Blessed Lord said: This imperishable yoga I declared to Vivasvan; Vivasvan
taught it to Manu; Manu to Ikshvaku told it.

4:2This, handed on down the line, the King-Sages knew. This yoga by great efflux
of time decayed in the world, O Parantapa.

4:3This same ancient yoga hath been to-day declared to thee by Me, for thou art My
devotee and My friend; it is the supreme Secret.

4:4Arjuna said: Later was Thy birth, earlier the birth of Vivasvan; how then am I to
understand that Thou declaredst it in the beginning?

4:5The Blessed Lord said: Many births have been left behind by Me and by thee, O
Arjuna. I know them all, but thou knowest not thine, O Parantapa.

4:6Though unborn, the imperishable SELF, and also the Lord of all beings, brooding
over nature, which is Mine own, yet I am born through My own Power.

4:7Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata, and there is exaltation of
unrighteousness, then I Myself come forth;

4:8For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the sake of
firmly establishing righteousness, I am born from age to age.

4:9He who thus knoweth My divine birth and action, in its essence, having
abandoned the body, cometh not to birth again, but cometh unto Me, O Arjuna.

4:10Freed from passion, fear and anger, filled with Me, taking refuge in Me,
purified in the fire of wisdom, many have entered into My Being.

4:11However men approach Me, even so do I welcome them, for the path men take
from every side is Mine, O Partha.

4:12They who long after success in action on earth worship the Shining Ones; for in
brief space verily, in this world of men, success is born of action.

4:13The four castes were emanated by Me, by the different distribution of qualities
and actions; know Me to be the author of them, though the actionless and inexhaustible.

4:14Nor do actions affect Me, nor is the fruit of action desired by Me. He who thus
knoweth Me is not bound by actions.

4:15Having thus known, our forefathers, ever seeking liberation, performed action;
therefore do thou also perform action, as did our forefathers in the olden time.

4:16"What is action, what inaction?" Even the wise are herein perplexed. Therefore
I will declare to thee the action by knowing which thou shalt be loosed from evil.

4:17It is needful to discriminate action, to discriminate unlawful action, and to
discriminate inaction; mysterious is the path of action.

4:18He who seeth inaction in action, and action in inaction, he is wise among men,
he is harmonious, even while performing all action.

4:19Whose works are all free from the moulding of desire, whose actions are burned
up by the fire of wisdom, him the wise have called a Sage.

4:20Having abandoned attachment to the fruit of action, always content, nowhere
seeking refuge, he is not doing anything, although doing actions.

4:21Hoping for naught, his mind and self controlled, having abandoned all greed,
performing action by the body alone, he doth not commit sin.

4:22Content with whatsoever he obtaineth without effort, free from the pairs of
opposites, without envy, balanced in success and failure, though acting he is not bound.

4:23Of one with attachment dead, harmonious, with his thoughts established in
wisdom, his works sacrifices, all action melts away.

4:24The ETERNAL the oblation, the ETERNAL the clarified butter, are offered in
the ETERNAL the fire by the ETERNAL; unto the ETERNAL verily shall he go who in his action meditateth wholly upon the ETERNAL.

4:25Some Yogis offer up sacrifice to the Shining Ones; others sacrifice only by
pouring sacrifice into the fire of the ETERNAL;

4:26Some pour as sacrifice hearing and the other senses into the fires of restraint;
some pour sound and the other objects of sense into the fires of the senses as sacrifice;

4:27Others again into the wisdom-kindled fire of union attained by self-control,
pour as sacrifice all the functions of the senses and the functions of life;

4:28Yet others the sacrifice of wealth, the sacrifice of austerity, the sacrifice of yoga,
the sacrifice of silent reading and wisdom, men concentrated and of effectual vows;

4:29Yet others pour as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming, and the
incoming, in the outgoing, restraining the flow of the outgoing and incoming breaths, solely absorbed in the control of breathing.

4:30Others regular in food, pour as sacrifice their life breaths in life breaths. All
these are knowers of sacrifice, and by sacrifice have destroyed their sins.

4:31The eaters of the life-giving remains of sacrifice go to the changeless
ETERNAL, This world is not for the non-sacrificer, much less the other, O best of the Kurus.

4:32Many and various sacrifices are thus spread out before the ETERNAL. Know
thou that all these are born of action, and thus knowing thou shalt be free.

4:33Better than the sacrifice of any objects is the sacrifice of wisdom, O Parantapa.
All actions in their entirety, O Partha, culminate in wisdom.

4:34Learn thou this by discipleship, by investigation, and by service. The wise, the
seers of the essence of things, will instruct thee in wisdom.

4:35And having known this, thou shalt not again fall into this confusion, O Pandava;
for by this thou wilt see all beings without exception in the SELF, and thus in Me.

4:36Even if thou art the most sinful of all sinners, yet shalt thou cross over all sin by
the raft of wisdom.

4:37As the burning fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so doth the fire of wisdom
reduce all actions to ashes.

4:38Verily there is no purifier in this world like wisdom; he that is perfected in yoga
finds it in the SELF in due season.

4:39The man who is full of faith obtaineth wisdom, and he also who hath mastery
over his senses; and, having obtained wisdom, he goeth swiftly to the supreme Peace.

4:40But the ignorant, faithless, doubting self goeth to destruction; nor this world,
nor that beyond, nor happiness, is there for the doubting self.

4:41He who hath renounced actions by yoga, who hath cloven asunder doubt by
wisdom, who is ruled by the SELF, actions do not bind him, O Dhananjaya.

4:42Therefore, with the sword of the wisdom of the SELF cleaving asunder this
ignorance-born doubt dwelling in thy heart, be established in yoga. Stand up, O Bharata.

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