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Bhagavad-gita chapter 4

4.1-3: The history of buddhi yoga

4.1: Krishna said: Buddhi-yoga is an eternally relevant science which I previously taught to the sun god, Vivasvān. It was then passed down from Vivasvān to Vaivasvata Manu, and from Manu to King Ikṣvāku, the emperor of the earth planet.

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4.2: This most important knowledge was conveyed from teacher to student for many generations of kings. However, over a long period of time, Arjuna, the teachings were gradually corrupted, and now they are lost.

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That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.

 

4.4-8: Arjuna’s doubt and Krishna’s reply

4.4: Arjuna said: You took birth in recent times, but Vivasvān was born millions of years ago. How, then, will anyone believe that early in his reign, You taught him buddhi-yoga?

 

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4.5: The Supreme Lord said: I have appeared in many avatars, all of which are not different from Me, and since you are My friend, you always appear as My companion. Since I am omniscient, I remember all My appearances. However, you cannot remember because your memory has been covered by My inconceivable energy. I have done this so that, for the purpose of this pastime, you will think of yourself as Kuntī’s son and destroy your enemies.

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4.6: I, the Supreme Lord of all beings, am inherently eternal. In other words, I do not need to take birth to exist. Nevertheless, I still appear as if taking birth, but I do so in My eternal unchanging spiritual body.

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Arjuna’s unspoken question: “How often do You appear?”

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4.7: Kṛṣṇa said: Whenever the principles of religion deteriorate and irreligion increases, Arjuna, then, unable to tolerate this, I personally appear.

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Arjuna’s unspoken question: The saintly kings punish wrongdoers while great spiritual teachers establish religion. So why do You say that You personally come to do this?

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4.8: I come to relieve the misery of the great devotees who suffer in separation from Me. I also come to kill powerful demons who are unconquerable by anyone else. Finally, I need to personally come so that people can engage in the highest spiritual practice of hearing about, glorifying, remembering and worshipping Me. For these three reasons, I appear in every yuga.

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4.9–11: The benefit of understanding Kṛṣṇa’s appearance

4.9: Liberation becomes easy for one who constantly hears about and glorifies My transcendental appearance and pastimes with full faith. After quitting the body, such a person does not take birth again in the material world but comes back to Me in My eternal spiritual abode, Arjuna.

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4.10: First one must undergo the austerity of understanding spiritual knowledge correctly. This is difficult because one must identify and reject misleading and dangerous opinions. Many people, however, have successfully done this.

Then one must give up attachment to hearing from and associating with people who speak nonsense—in other words, people who do not support their opinions with scriptural reference. One must also give up fear of such people, as well as anger towards them.

Only then is it possible to fully absorb one’s consciousness in hearing about, glorifying and remembering My birth and earthly pastimes. Through this process, one becomes purified and qualified to attain love for Me and personally associate with Me in My eternal abode.

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Arjuna’s unspoken doubt: “The jñānīs and yogīs also seek liberation, but they do not accept that Your birth and activities are transcendental. What happens to them?”

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4.11: To attain their respective goals, materialists, impersonalists and devotees must all follow the path I have established for surrendering to Me—hearing about and glorifying Me.

Some worship Me because they desire material success, others because they seek impersonal liberation, and yet others because they desire My personal service (ye yathā māṁ prapadyante). Whatever their reason, all people must ultimately approach Me if they wish to attain success, O son of Pṛthā. I will reciprocate accordingly and grant them their desired result.

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4.12–15: The purpose of prescribed duty

4.12: But I digress by speaking about My transcendental appearance and activities. I began by telling you how I previously taught buddhi-yoga to the sun god and that I am now speaking it to you because it has become lost over time. You should know that very few people are interested in this knowledge.

Generally, people who want material success worship the demigods. This is because in human society material results come far more quickly than spiritual ones.

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4.13: To gradually free people from selfish desire and elevate them to niṣkāma-karma, I created the four social divisions according to different qualities and activities. Although I create their different bodies, the differences in their circumstances are not due to any partiality on My part, because My attitude towards the living entities never changes.

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4.14: I get no karmic reactions for anything I do in creating, maintaining and destroying the universes. This is because I do not act with a desire to enjoy the results of My work. Those who truly understand this about Me will follow My example and thus also not become bound by karmic reactions.

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4.15: Knowing Me to have no materially motivated intentions, many great souls in the past, like Vivasvān, performed their prescribed duties as I instructed. Those seeking liberation engaged in niṣkāma-karma to attain it, while those already liberated do so to set the right example for others. Therefore, Arjuna, whether you are liberated or not, you should follow the example of the great souls of the past by performing your prescribed duty.

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Arjuna’s unspoken doubt: Why are You emphasising the importance of following in the footsteps of previous great souls in performing one’s prescribed duties? Is it possible to be confused about duty? Is that why one needs to look to the example of those who have previously attained perfection?

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4.16-19: Karmic and non-karmic work

4.16: Even great sages dedicated to Me sometimes become confused about which actions give karmic consequences, and which do not. Therefore, I will now explain to you everything you need to know about action—binding and non-binding. By clearly understanding this, you will become free from the ill-fortune.

 

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4.17: One must understand the difference between materially pious and impious actions, and actions that give no reaction whatsoever—neither pious nor impious. All this is extremely difficult to understand unless one follows the example of past liberated souls.

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4.18: One who knows how to work without accruing any karmic reactions and also knows when renouncing work would bind him is spiritually intelligent and remains untouched by the modes of nature while performing all kinds of work.

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4.19: One must come to the stage where all one’s actions are devoid of material desire. This is possible when one is completely purified of past karmic reactions by the cultivation of transcendental knowledge. Only those who are already self-realised can recognise such a transcendentally situated person.

 

4.20 – 24: The perfect buddhi yogi

 

4.20: By engaging in niṣkāma-karma, one attains brahma-bhūta—the first stage of transcendental realisation. At this point, one feels inner satisfaction and no longer needs anything external for happiness. Whatever one then does—whether apparently pious or impious—is done without selfish material desire and thus gives no karmic reactions.

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4.21: Once having attained the transcendental platform of brahma-bhūta, one no longer needs to practice acting without desire for the result. At this point, one’s mind is truly devoid of any selfish desire, and one spontaneously thinks of how to satisfy the Lord. Such a transcendentalist does not think of anything as belonging to himself. He works to attain the basic necessities to live a healthy life, but he does not over-endeavour. Thus, even while working only for bodily requirements, he does not incur any karmic reactions.

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4.22: In other words, he is satisfied with whatever comes naturally by the Lord’s arrangement. Since he genuinely has no material desires, he remains peaceful in all conditions: heat or cold, happiness or distress. He neither envies those more successful than himself nor hates those who try to harm him. He is neither elated in the face of success nor upset when he fails but continues to serve the Lord to the best of his ability in both circumstances. Such a transcendentalist is never bound by karmic reactions, although fully engaged in different activities.

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4.23: All karmic reactions are destroyed for one who is neither attracted nor averse to anything in the material world. Having realised his spiritual nature, such a person performs all actions as a sacrifice for Viṣṇu.

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4.24: Consider the example of a person performing a daily fire yajña. Even this daily duty can become completely spiritualised; the same principle applies to all prescribed work. When one’s mind is fully absorbed in transcendental knowledge—in the knowledge that Viṣṇu is everything and everything is His energy—then when such a person performs his daily fire yajña, he sees everything differently from a materialist performing the same yajña. He sees that everything he is doing, the words or mantras he needs to say to execute his task, the equipment he needs for the yajña, the immediate recipient of his efforts, and the deity or person whom he is trying to please—all of this, being Viṣṇu’s energy, is of the same spiritual quality as the Lord. By performing this daily task with this spiritual vision, one gradually attains full spiritual realisation.

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4.25: Other goals pursued through sacrifice

4.25: Some seek fulfilment by worshipping the demigods and carefully performing fire sacrifices to attain material benefits. Others perform the same sacrifice to end material suffering by annihilating their personhood and merging into the impersonal Brahman. Both types of worshippers mistake their respective goals—material enjoyment and the end of suffering—for ultimate perfection. All prescribed duties can similarly be performed to pursue material enjoyment or to escape material suffering.

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4.26: Buddhi-yoga in different āśramas

4.26: Before speaking about the perfected buddhi-yogī, I was explaining the process of niṣkāma-karma that leads to such perfection. Let us now return to that discussion and consider the respective means by which lifelong celibates and married people can achieve spiritual perfection.

Lifelong celibates must ensure they hear only spiritual subject matters and strictly refrain from all other forms of sense enjoyment. Married people may engage in some regulated sense gratification while recognising that this is not the path to true happiness and simultaneously practising spiritual disciplines that gradually free them from all attachment to material enjoyment.

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4.27–29: Other systems of yoga

4.27: Besides buddhi-yoga there are other authorised methods for freeing oneself from material attachment and aversion and thus attaining the transcendental platform. The followers of Patañjali yoga attempt to control the senses and life airs through mental discipline acquired by the cultivation of transcendental knowledge.

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4.28: Besides the followers of Patañjali yoga, there are others who practise different variations of mystic yoga—such as haṭha-yoga and aṣṭāṅga-yoga—to achieve different types of mystic perfection. Still others seek either elevation to the heavenly planets or merging with the impersonal Brahman through practices such as giving charity, performing severe austerities, or cultivating transcendental knowledge through the study of Vedic literature.

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4.29: There are those who focus on controlling the mind by practising different breathing techniques, and some severely restrict their eating, thereby gradually sacrificing their lives.

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4.30 – 33: Purpose of Sacrifice

4.30: All these different paths are intended to help one control the senses. One who practises them with this intention becomes purified of past karmic reactions,  while also attaining the by-products of sacrifice: material facilities and power. Then, on leaving the body, one attains the eternal spiritual realm.

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4.31: However, those who do not engage in any type of authorised sacrifice cannot be happy in this world, what to speak of attaining a better destination in the next life, O best of the Kurus.

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4.32: These many different types of sacrifice described in the Vedas correspond to one’s prescribed duties, which differ according to one’s varṇa and āśrama. By understanding and performing the duties appropriate to one’s situation, one will achieve liberation.

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4.33: More important than the external acts of sacrifice, such as execution of occupational duties, fasting, and giving in charity, are those practices by which one cultivates transcendental knowledge. After all, Arjuna, the purpose of doing sacrifice is to realise transcendental knowledge.

4.34 -38: transcendental knowledge

4.34: The proper method for cultivating transcendental knowledge is to approach someone who has mastered the spiritual science and thereby attained self-realisation. One must make it a priority to hear from him and ask thoughtful questions that help one assimilate the subject matter. Since such souls have transcended the influence of the modes of material nature and realised transcendental bliss, they are extremely compassionate and will surely teach the spiritual aspirant whatever he needs to understand to achieve success.

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4.35: Once one properly understands this transcendental knowledge, Arjuna, one will never again confuse living beings with their temporary material bodies, nor be deluded into thinking that anyone can be killed. When one understands that every living being is an eternal part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and that even their material bodies are products of the Lord’s energy, one will see the relationship of every being with oneself and with Me.

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4.36: Even one who has led a sinful life and become habituated to the most sinful practices can become purified by cultivating transcendental knowledge. By transcendental knowledge one can both eradicate the suffering arising from previous sins and overcome the tendency to commit further sins, thereby avoiding future suffering as well.

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4.37: Arjuna, think of transcendental knowledge as a blazing fire which reduces firewood to ashes, for it burns away one’s accumulated reserve of karmic reactions. It destroys not only one’s current material tendencies, but also dormant tendencies that have not yet surfaced, whether pious or sinful.

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4.38: Nothing can purify one from material conditioning as effectively as cultivating transcendental knowledge. As one practises and gradually perfects buddhi yoga, this knowledge manifests within the heart in due course of time, without the need to externally renounce the world.

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4.39–40: Who does and does not realise transcendental knowledge

Arjuna’s unspoken doubt: “How and when does transcendental knowledge awaken in the heart?”

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4.39: To attain transcendental knowledge, one must possess the following qualities. One must have faith in Kṛṣṇa and the process of buddhi-yoga. By determinedly engaging in these practices, especially śravaṇam and kīrtanam, one attains complete control over the senses. Having achieved sense control, one will quickly realise the soul and its relationship with the Supreme and by thus attaining liberation, experience unadulterated peace.

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4.40:Now I will describe the three types of people who are not eligible for transcendental knowledge. The first are ignorant people who have not read or tried to understand scripture, especially this divine conversation of Ours. The second is the person who is familiar with scripture but has no faith in it. Such faithlessness could be due to one’s own argumentative nature or due to frustration on seeing that there are many factions with differing opinions.

The third is the person who knows and has faith in scripture but doubts his own ability to ever attain perfection. The life of this third person is especially ruined. Due to his doubts about the possibility of his own success, his mind is never peaceful. He can neither enjoy material happiness nor attain transcendental happiness.

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4.41–42: The conclusion of Chapter 4

4.41: Arjuna, a self-realised person incurs no karmic reactions because he renounces all materially motivated work through the practice of yoga and vanquishes all doubts by cultivating knowledge of My teachings.

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4.42: This is the conclusive difference between action that carries karmic reactions and action that does not. Therefore, to perform action without karmic reactions, one must destroy all doubts that are buried in the heart through knowledge of My teachings. Once you have destroyed these doubts, Arjuna, you must rise and determinedly engage in the battle.

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Chapter Summary

Chapter 4 explains the history and process of buddhi-yoga. Kṛṣṇa reveals that this eternal science was originally taught to the sun god, gradually became lost, and is now being spoken again to Arjuna. He then explains the transcendental nature of His appearances and the benefits of understanding them. Returning to the subject of prescribed duty, He clarifies how one may perform action without incurring karmic reactions through sacrifice—especially niṣkāma-karma informed by transcendental knowledge. The chapter concludes by explaining the psychology of success and failure in self-realisation, and the crucial role of transcendental knowledge.

Along the way, Kṛṣṇa touches on varṇāśrama as a means of elevating those not yet interested in self-realisation, the need to follow the example of previously perfected souls, and the importance of taking guidance from a self-realised teacher.