Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 in English IAST: Jñāna Karma Saṃnyāsa Yoga

oṃ tatsaditi śrīmadbhagavadgītāsūpaniṣatsu brahmavidyāyāṃ yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasaṃvāde jñānakarmasaṃnyāsayogo nāma caturtho’dhyāyaḥ ||

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About Jnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga

The third chapter ended by saying that action must not be abandoned. The fourth takes up the same point at a deeper level: how can one act without action becoming bondage? The answer is knowledge. So the chapter’s name brings together knowledge, action and renunciation.

The chapter opens with an unexpected claim. Krishna says he taught this yoga long ago to the Sun. Arjuna’s question in response draws out the Gita’s clearest words on the avatara.

How the chapter moves

• Verses 1 to 3: The lineage of the yoga, its loss, and its retelling to Arjuna, devotee and friend.
• Verses 4 to 10: Arjuna’s question and the mystery of the avatara: how, when, for what purpose, and what comes of knowing it.
• Verses 11 to 15: As people approach, so they are received; the division by quality and work; the Lord who is maker yet non-doer; and the example of the ancients.
• Verses 16 to 23: The deep question of what is action and what is inaction, and the state of one who does nothing even while working.
• Verses 24 to 33: The vision of brahmarpanam and the many forms of sacrifice. Of all of them, the sacrifice of knowledge is highest.
• Verses 34 to 42: How to learn at a teacher’s feet, knowledge as fire and as boat, faith, and the call to cut doubt with the sword of knowledge and stand up.

Three readings of the avatara

The sixth verse answers how the unborn can be born, and the acharyas read that answer differently. For Shankara he appears as if born, by his own maya, and is not born in the ultimate sense. For Ramanuja his birth is real, but it does not come from karma; he comes by his own will, in his own form. For Madhva even his body is imperishable, and he seems to be born only to the deluded.

These pages do not decide between the readings. Wherever the acharyas part, each position is recorded in its own terms.

Inaction in action

The eighteenth verse is among the most riddling in the Gita: one who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise. To work outwardly without the burden of doership within, and to recognise the ‘I’ still at work within while sitting outwardly still. The rest of the chapter unpacks this one formula from many sides.

Sources: several.