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Chapter 5 · Action in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness · 29 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 ›

Liberation & destinyChapter 5 · Action in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness

5.24 5.26

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 5.25

Liberation through spiritual discipline

Jīva · The soul

लभन्ते ब्रह्मनिर्वाणमृषय: क्षीणकल्मषा: ।

छिन्नद्वैधा यतात्मान: सर्वभूतहिते रता: ॥ २५ ॥

labhante brahma-nirvāṇam

ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ

chinna-dvaidhā yatātmānaḥ

sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ

Translation

Those who are beyond the dualities that arise from doubts, whose minds are engaged within, who are always busy working for the welfare of all living beings and who are free from all sins achieve liberation in the Supreme.

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

The Highest Welfare Work

1
Those beyond the opposites arising from doubt, focused within, free from sin, and working for all beings’ welfare attain liberation in the Supreme.
2
Prabhupāda explains that only someone fully in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can do the highest welfare work: restoring people’s awareness of their relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
3
Remember Kṛṣṇa as the supreme enjoyer, owner, and friend, and help others remember Him.

Key points from the purport

He engages in purifying his external activities by working for the benefit of others

He is beyond the dualities that arise from doubts

Minds are engaged within

Thus one is free from all sins and achieves Brahma-nirvana stage or liberation in the Supreme

Highest welfare work — To revive the forgetfulness of Krishna being the Supreme enjoyer, proprietor and well-wisher

Who can engage in such welfare

One cannot engage in such first class welfare without being liberated in the Supreme

Therefore only one in full Krishna consciousness can perform such welfare

What is the imperfect understanding of “welfare activities”

Physical welfare or temporary relief of external body and mind

Why it is imperfect – Because the real cause of one’s difficulties is “forgetfulness of one’s relationship with the Supreme Lord”

Connected verses · 2

Texts 5.24 And 5.25

Krishna gives more symptoms of one seeking satisfaction in spirit, not matter

Texts 5.24 & 5.25

After reading Text 5.24 and 5.25, we may think that achieving

liberation is too difficult, and we may become discouraged. In Text 5.24, Srila Prabhupada’s translation uses the word “ultimately,” as if to caution us that the result won’t be quickly achieved. Similarly, the qualities mentioned in these two verses are rarely found. In the next verse, however, Krishna speaks reassuringly.