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Chapter 2 · Contents of the Gītā Summarized · 72 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps

1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.

Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›

Duty & actionChapter 2 · Contents of the Gītā Summarized

2.50 2.52

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 2.51

Work without attachment; steady intelligence

Karma · Action

कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः ।

जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम् ॥ ५१ ॥

karma-jaṁ buddhi-yuktā hi

phalaṁ tyaktvā manīṣiṇaḥ

janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ

padaṁ gacchanty anāmayam

Translation

By thus engaging in devotional service to the Lord, great sages or devotees free themselves from the results of work in the material world. In this way they become free from the cycle of birth and death and attain the state beyond all miseries [by going back to Godhead].

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Freedom Through Devotional Service

1
Through devotional service to the Lord, devotees become free from the results of work and repeated birth and death, returning to Godhead beyond all misery.
2
No material body can offer freedom from birth, death, old age and disease. Working for material rewards cannot remove these miseries.
3
We are eternal servants of the Lord, not His equals. Understanding this and lovingly serving Him makes us eligible for Vaikuṇṭha, where material misery and death are absent.

Key points from the purport

Buddhi-yoga provides freedom from cycle of birth and death

This provides a state beyond all miseries by going back to Godhead

Param-Padam (Vaikuntha-loka) refers to a state of no miseries — It is the place of liberated living entities

Ref: SB 10.14.58 – Analogy: Shelter of the boat of lotus feet of the Lord makes the ocean of the material world as small as a calf’s hoof print

Ignorance of ‘conditioned soul’ vs Position of ‘Great Souls’ — Conditioned souls do not know that:

Material world – Danger at every step

All material bodies anywhere in the universe are full of miseries

No adjustment possible by fruitive acts

How do great sages get free — By devotional service

Secret of Success and qualification to enter Vaikuntha planets

Know the constitutional position of living entity as eternal servitor of Supreme Personality of Godhead

To know the constitutional position also means to know the sublime position of the Lord

Fate of thinking of ‘Oneness with the Lord’ – repeated birth and death

One who wrongly thinks that the living entity and Lord are on the same level is understood to be in darkness and cannot engage in devotional service to the Lord

Definition of Karma-yoga/Buddhi-yoga/Devotional service — Service for the cause of the Lord