Free The Bhagavad Gita by Jack Hawley

for one thing or loathe another is the true ‘renunciate.’ What matters is not what you call yourself, but whether you escape your self-will (ego). With no ego you break free of karma.
     
      4  “The uninformed think these two paths — renunciation (sanyasa yoga) and action (karma yoga) — lead to different results, but that is not true. They are essentially the same; compare them.
     
      5  “Right knowing (jnana yoga) leads to right doing. Right doing (karma yoga) gives rise to right knowing. Take either path to the very end and they meet. At that place the contemplative seeker of knowledge greets the person of action, and they are both equally free from the cycle of birth and death. The person who knows this oneness of paths really knows the Truth.”
     
The Role of Action (Karma)
     
    6-7  “As I mentioned earlier, Arjuna, you cannot renounce action without first performing it. The karma-yogi comes to realize through the direct experience of selfless action in the world that life beyond the pull of worldly desire is better than life entangled in it. Without direct experience one has to rely on theory and concepts. Theorizing and make-believe have no place in one’s spiritual career.
“The mind absorbed in the Divine even while engaging in earthly activities gets purified. Purifying your mind means that your sense of doership vanishes and God becomes the doer. It also means that you realize your Self as the Atma in all beings. This purity ofmind and heart leads to higher spiritual discipline and thus to true oneness with the Godhead. It is at this highest of high places where the paths of renunciation and action converge.
     
    8-9  “The enlightened person always thinks, ‘I (the Real I) do nothing; I (this body ‘I’) am but the instrument.’ He or she is constantly aware of this while seeing or hearing, touching or smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping, breathing, speaking, letting go or holding on, or even when opening or closing the eyes — aware that all these activities are but interactions among bodily senses and worldly objects. The activities may seem real but it is not the Self, it is merely nature at work. All actions pertaining to bodily existence take place in the worldly self, which is not the real Self. Atma, as you have learned, is beyond all worldly matters.
    10  “As the lotus floating on the surface of muddy water stays untouched by the water, when you offer all actions to the Divine and surrender any yearning for the results, you cannot be tainted.
    11  “Purity of action, mind, and heart is absolutely essential for further spiritual growth. To a karma-yogi who has turned his or her whole life toward Divinity, the body, senses, and intellect are just instruments for self-purification. Any work this karma-yogi performs is done dispassionately, and this enhances spiritual unfolding.
    12  “The karma-yogi offers all works and all desires for the fruits of works to the Divine — and thus wins eternal peace in the Divine. But the person impelled by selfish desire gets entangled in agitations and anxieties of the mind.
    13  “The true yogi, being a self-controlled person who has mentally cut free from worldly actions, lives content as the indweller, a mere resident in a body. These yogis do not incessantly drive themselves to act, nor do they involve others in action.
    14  “It is mysterious, Arjuna. God established this system but does not operate it. Divinity does not determine the worldly doings of humanity, nor does It instill the sense of doership (ego) into humanity — nor even does It link actions to the consequences of actions. Nature does all this. All actions, all works, all karma, belong to nature, not the Divine. It is humanity that determines its earthly destiny. People seal their own fate.
    15  “Further, God is neither responsible for nor takes note of anyone’s bad or even good deeds. Both bad and good karma are the result of actions