Detachment

Two birds, companions always united, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit of the tree; the other, not eating, looks on.

Actions do not taint Me, nor do I have longing for the fruit of action. One who understands Me thus is not bound by actions.

You have the right to action alone, never to its fruits at any time. Let not the fruit of action be your motive, nor let attachment to inaction take hold in you.

Treat pleasure and pain equally, gain and loss equally, victory and defeat equally — then engage in battle. In this way you will not incur sin.

O son of Kunti, the contacts of the senses with their objects give rise to cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go; they are impermanent. Bear with them, O Bharata.

One whose intellect is unattached everywhere, who has conquered the self and is free of craving — through renunciation that person attains the supreme perfection of actionlessness.

A doer who is free of attachment, who speaks not of 'I,' endowed with steadiness and vigour, unchanged by success or failure — such a doer is called sattvic.

Obligatory action performed without attachment, free of passion and hatred, by one who seeks no fruit — such action is called sattvic.

For one who bears a body, it is not possible to abandon action entirely; but the one who relinquishes the fruits of action — that person alone is truly called a renunciant.

But even these actions should be performed, O Partha, abandoning attachment and the desire for their fruits — this is My firm and highest conviction.

The Blessed Lord said: The sages understand sannyasa as the setting aside of desire-driven actions; the discerning ones declare tyaga to be the relinquishment of the fruits of all actions.

Arjuna said: O mighty-armed one, O Hrishikesha, O slayer of Keshi — I wish to know separately the true nature of renunciation and of relinquishment.

Surrendering all actions to Me with a mind fixed on the inner Self, free from hope, free from possessiveness — fight, rid of all fever.

Therefore, without attachment, constantly perform whatever action ought to be done — for by acting without attachment a person attains the Supreme.

As the ocean remains still and immovable even as rivers pour into it from all sides — so the person into whom all desires enter without disturbing attains peace, not the one who craves desires.

Perform your actions while abiding in yoga, O Dhananjaya, having relinquished all attachment. Be equal in success and failure — this equanimity itself is called yoga.

Dwelling in solitude, eating lightly, with speech, body, and mind restrained, ever absorbed in the yoga of meditation, established in detachment —

Endowed with a purified intellect, governing the self with steady resolve, abandoning the objects of sense beginning with sound, casting away passion and aversion —

The true renunciant, filled with sattva and good understanding, with doubts cut away, neither hates unwelcome work nor clings to welcome work.

Free from pride and delusion, having conquered the evil of attachment, ever abiding in the Self, with desire turned away, released from the pairs of pleasure and pain — the undeluded reach that imperishable state.