The Yoga of Transcendental Knowledge
Sri Krishna imparts the foundational teachings of the Bhagavad Gita: the immortality of the Atman (Soul), equanimity in pleasure and pain, and Nishkama Karma—performing one's duty without attachment to the fruits of action.
“The Blessed Lord said: You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.”
Philosophical Context: Distinguishing the transient physical body from the timeless consciousness.
“Contacts of the senses with their objects bring cold and heat, pleasure and pain; they come and go and are impermanent. Endure them bravely, O Arjuna.”
Philosophical Context: Stoic-like mastery over sensory fluctuations (Titiksha).
“The Soul is never born, nor does it ever die; nor having once existed, does it ever cease to be. Unborn, eternal, changeless, and primeval, it is not slain when the body is slain.”
Philosophical Context: The classic verse on the indestructibility of the Atman, echoed in the Katha Upanishad.
“Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on new ones, so the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters into others that are new.”
Philosophical Context: Metaphor of continuity across mortal transitions.
“You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.”
Philosophical Context: The cornerstone verse of Karma Yoga (Nishkama Karma): excellence of action freed from anxious craving for reward.
“Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity of mind is called Yoga (Samatvam Yoga Uchyate).”
Philosophical Context: Defining Yoga not as withdrawal from life, but as unshakeable mental poise in the midst of action.
“While contemplating the objects of the senses, attachment to them arises; from attachment springs craving, and from craving arises anger. From anger comes delusion, and from delusion the loss of memory and reason.”
Philosophical Context: Psychological chain of how unchecked craving undermines human judgment.