Bhagavad Gita · 5.15 · Path of Renunciation·15 of 29
नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभुः।अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तवः ॥
nādatte kasyachit pāpaṁ na chaiva sukṛitaṁ
vibhuḥ ajñānenāvṛitaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ
Sanskrit recitation
Peace of the one who knows · 5.13–5.29 · Teaching
Translation
The Lord takes neither the demerit nor the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, and beings are deluded.
Meaning
Knowledge is enveloped by ignorance. Conseently man is deluded. He thinks, I act. I enjoy. I have done such and such a meritourious act. I will get such and such a fruit. I will enjoy in heaven. I will get a birth in a rich family.Of anyone even of His devotees.Man is bound when he is identifies himself with Nature and its effects -- body, mind, Prana or the lifeforce, and senses. He attains freedom or Moksha when he identifies himself with the immortal, actionless Self that dwells within his heart.When I does not act how can God accept good or evil deeds (Cf.V.29)
After Swami Sivananda
Peace of the one who knows· 5.13–5.29→
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.
Word-by-word→
- na
- not
- cha
- and
- eva
- certainly
- tena
- by that
- pāpam
- sin
- ādatte
- accepts
- jñānam
- knowledge
- muhyanti
- are deluded
- vibhuḥ
- the omnipresent God
- kasyachit
- anyone’s
- ajñānena
- by ignorance
- jantavaḥ
- the living entities
- āvṛitam
- covered
- su-kṛitam
- virtuous deeds
Themes
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