BG 4.1: The Lord said: I taught this imperishable Yoga to Vivasvan; Vivasvan taught it to Manu; Manu declared it to Ikshvaku.

BG 4.2: Thus handed down in succession, the royal sages knew this (Karma Yoga). But with long lapse of time, O Arjuna, that Yoga was lost to the world.

BG 4.3: It is the same ancient Yoga which is now taught to you by Me, as you are My devotee and My friend. For, this is a supreme mystery.

BG 4.4: Arjuna said: Later was your birth, and earlier the birth of Vivasvan. How then am I to understand that you taught it in the beginning?

BG 4.5: The Lord said: Many births of Mine have passed, O Arjuna, and so is it with you also. I know them all, but you do not know them.

BG 4.6: Though I am birthless and of immutable nature, though I am the Lord of all beings, yet by employing My own Nature (Prakrti) I am born out of My own free will.

BG 4.7: Whenever there is a decline of Dharma, O Arjuna, and uprising of Adharma, then I incarnate Myself.

BG 4.8: For the protection of the good and also for the destruction of the wicked, for the establishment of Dharma, am I born from age to age.

BG 4.9: He who thus knows in truth My divine birth and actions does not get rebirth after leaving the body; he will come to Me, O Arjuna.

BG 4.10: Freed from desire, fear and wrath, absorbed in Me, depending upon Me, purified by the austerity of knowledge, many have attained My state.

BG 4.11: Whoever resort to Me in any manner, in the same manner do I favour them; men experience Me alone in different ways, O Arjuna.

BG 4.12: Those who desire the fruits of their ritualistic acts, sacrifice to the gods here; for, success born of such acts quickly accrues in the world of men.

BG 4.13: The system of four stations was created by Me according to distinction of Gunas and Karma. Though I am their creator, know Me as non-agent and immutable.

BG 4.14: Works do not contaminate Me. In Me there is no desire for fruits of actions. He who understands Me thus is not bound by actions.

BG 4.15: Knowing thus, even ancient seekers for liberation did work. Therefore, do your work only as the ancients did in olden times.

BG 4.16: What is action? What is non-action? Even the wise are puzzled in respect of these. I shall declare to you that kind of action by knowing which you will be freed from evil.

BG 4.17: For, there is what ought to be known in action. Likewise there is what ought to be known in multi-form action. And there is what ought to be understood in non-action. Thus mysterious is the way of action.

BG 4.18: He who sees non-action in action and also action in non-action is wise among men. He is fit for release and has carried out all actions.

BG 4.19: He whose every undertaking is free from desire and delusive identification (of the body with the self), whose actions are burnt up in the fire of knowledge—him the wise describe as a sage.

BG 4.20: Having renounced attachment to the fruits of his actions, ever contented with the eternal self, and dependent on none, one does not act at all, even though engaged in action.

BG 4.21: Free from desire, his intellect and mind controlled, giving up all possessions, and doing bodily work only, he is not subject to evil:

BG 4.22: Content with what chance may bring, rising above the pairs of opposites, free from ill-will, even-minded in success and failure, though he acts, he is not bound.

BG 4.23: Of one whose attachments are gone, who is free, whose mind is established in knowledge, who works only for sacrifices, his Karma is entirely dissolved. Of a person whose attachment to all objects is gone because of his mind being established in the knowledge of the self, who is therefore liberated from accepting all worldly possessions and who is engaged in the performance of sacrifices etc., as described above—in the case of such a person his beginningless load of Karma, which is the cause of his bondage, is completely dissolved, i.e., destroyed without leaving any residue.

BG 4.24: Brahman is the instrument to offer with; Brahman is the oblation. By Brahman is the oblation offered into the fire of Brahman; Brahman alone is to be reached by him who meditates on Him in his works.

BG 4.25: Some Yogins resort only to the sacrifice relating to gods. Others offer sacrifice into the fire of Brahman solely by means of sacrifice.

BG 4.26: Others offer as oblations hearing and other senses in the fires of restraint. Some others offer as oblations the objects of the senses, such as sound and the rest, into the fires of their senses.

BG 4.27: Some again offer as oblation the functions of the senses and the activity of the vital breaths into the fire of the Yoga of restraint of the mind kindled by knowledge.

BG 4.28: Self-controlled and firm of resolve, others perform the sacrifice of material objects or austerities or Yoga; while others offer their scriptural study and knowledge.

BG 4.29: Others, with restricted diet, are devoted to the control of breath. Some sacrifice the inward breath in the outward breath. Similarly others sacrifice the outward breath in the inward breath. Some others, stopping the flow of both the inward breath and the outward, sacrifice the inward breaths and outward breaths.

BG 4.30: All these know the meaning of sacrifices and through sacrifices are their sins eradicated. Those who subsist on the ambrosial food, the remnants of sacrifices, go to eternal Brahman.

BG 4.31: This world is not for him who makes no sacrifice. How then the other, O Arjuna?

BG 4.32: Thus many forms of sacrifices have been spread out as means of reaching Brahman (individual self in its own nature). Know that all these are born of actions. Knowing thus, you shall be free.

BG 4.33: The sacrifice of knowledge is superior to material sacrifice. O Arjuna, all actions and everything else culminate in knowledge.

BG 4.34: Know this by prostration, questioning and by service. The wise, who have realised the truth, will instruct you in knowledge.

BG 4.35: Knowing which, O Arjuna, you will not fall again into delusion in this way—by that knowledge you will see all beings without exception in yourself and then in Me.

BG 4.36: Even if you be the most sinful of all sinners, you will cross over all sins by the boat of knowledge alone.

BG 4.37: Just as burning fire turns fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge turn all Karma to ashes.

BG 4.38: For there is no purifier here equal to knowledge; he that is perfected in Karma Yoga finds this (knowledge) of his own accord in himself in due time.

BG 4.39: He who has faith, who is intent on it, and who has mastered his senses, attains knowledge. Having attained knowledge, he goes soon to supreme peace.

BG 4.40: The ignorant, the faithless and the doubting one perish; for the doubting one there is neither this world, nor that beyond, nor happiness.

BG 4.41: Actions do not bind him, O Arjuna, who has renounced them through Karma Yoga and whose doubts are sundered by knowledge, and who therefore possesses a steady mind.

BG 4.42: Therefore, sunder, with the sword of knowledge, this doubt present in your heart resulting from ignorance concerning the self. Practise this Yoga, O Arjuna, and rise up.