O Janardana (Krishna), if You think that knowledge (Jnana) is superior to action (karma), then why do You engage me in this terrible action (of war), O Keshava?

By abstaining from work a man does not attain freedom from action (naiskarmya) nor does he attain perfection (siddhi) by renunciation (sannyasa) alone.

He who controls the organs of action, but who, dwelling on the sense objects in the mind, is called a hypocrite.

You are told to do your rightful duty, as action is better than inaction. It is something that is also not possible for you to do without action, not even the upkeep of your physical body.

Oh, men and demigods, when the Lord of all creatures sent you towards this world at the very beginning, He also indirectly sent sacrifices for Lord Vishnu, and He blessed you by saying, ‘Be thou happy through the Yagya sacrifice,’ for by its performance, you will be worthy of all things.

The demigods, being pleased by the performance of a Yagya (sacrifice), supply all necessities to man, and man, being satisfied, is in charge of the various necessities of life. But the one who takes pleasure in these gifts but does not offer them in return to the demigods, is undoubtedly a thief.

All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rain. Rains are produced by performance of Yagya (sacrifice) and Yagya is born of prescribed duties.

My dear Arjuna, he who does not fulfill his duties according to his Vedic revelation of sacrifice lives in sin indeed, and the man who indulges only in refined sense gratification lives in vain.

A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his prescribed duties, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being.

O son of Partha, there is no work prescribed for me within all the three planetary systems. Nor am I in want of anything, nor have I need to obtain anything and yet I am engaged in work.

Just as the ignorant were doing their duties with attachment to results, in like manner, so are the learned too can act but without attachment so as to lead people on the right path.

One who is the knowledge of the absolute truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the difference between work and devotion and work for fruitive results.

One who execute his duties according to My injunctions and who follows this teaching faithfully without envy, becomes free from the bondage of fruitive actions.

Attraction and repulsion in respect of sense objects are felt by embodied souls, one should not come under the sway of the senses and the sense objects, for these are veritable stumbling blocks on the path of self-realisation.

Therefore, a man’s pure consciousness is covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.

Now, the working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he (the soul) is even higher than the intelligence.