न कर्तृत्वं न कर्माणि लोकस्य सृजति प्रभुः।न कर्मफलसंयोगं स्वभावस्तु प्रवर्तते ॥

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

• 5.13Mentally renouncing all actions and being self-controlled, the embodied one happily rests in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing others (body and senses) to act.

• 5.14Neither does the Lord create agency nor actions for the world, nor union with the fruits of actions; rather, it is Nature that acts.

• 5.15The Lord takes neither the demerit nor the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, and beings are deluded.
• 5.16But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun, knowledge reveals the Supreme Brahman.
• 5.17Their intellect absorbed in That, their self being That, established in That, with That as their supreme goal, they go whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.
• 5.18Sages look with an equal eye on a Brahmana endowed with learning and humility, on a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even an outcaste.
• 5.19Even here in this world, those whose minds rest in reality overcome birth; Brahman is indeed spotless and real; therefore they are established in Brahman.
• 5.20Resting in Brahman, with a steady intellect and undeluded, the knower of Brahman neither rejoices upon obtaining what is pleasant nor grieves upon obtaining what is unpleasant.
• 5.21With the self unattached to external contacts, he finds happiness in the Self; with the self engaged in the meditation of Brahman, he attains endless happiness.
• 5.22The enjoyments that arise from contact are only sources of pain, for they have a beginning and an end, O Arjuna; the wise do not rejoice in them.
• 5.23He who is able, while still here in this world, to withstand the impulse born out of desire and anger before the liberation from the body, he is a Yogi, and he is a happy man.
• 5.24He who is happy within, who rejoices within, and who is illuminated within, that Yogi attains absolute freedom, or Moksha, becoming Brahman himself.
• 5.25The sages obtain absolute freedom or Moksha when their sins have been destroyed, their dualities have been torn asunder, they are self-controlled, and they are intent on the welfare of all beings.
• 5.26Absolute freedom exists on all sides for those self-controlled ascetics who are free from desire and anger, who have controlled their thoughts, and who have realized the Self.
• 5.27Shutting out all external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, realizing the outgoing and incoming breaths moving within the nostrils.
• 5.28With the senses, mind, and intellect ever controlled, having liberation as their supreme goal, free from desire, fear, and anger, the sage is truly liberated forever.
• 5.29He who knows Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord of all the worlds, and the friend of all beings, attains peace.

na

nor

tu

but

lokasya

of the people

sanyogam

connection

prabhuḥ

God

sṛijati

creates

karmāṇi

actions

pravartate

is enacted

karma-phala

fruits of actions

kartṛitvam

sense of doership

svabhāvaḥ

one’s nature