We now are on the eighteenth chapter of Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta, which is the final chapter

of the Gita.
It is the longest chapter, coming in at 78 shlokas.
It is a summary of the entire Gita teaching condensed into one chapter.
It is the most practical among all of the chapters, containing lessons applicable to every
aspect of our life.
Arjun begins this chapter with a question to Shri Krishna. He wants to know what the
difference between sannyaasa & tyaaga is. Basically, he wants to know when to act and when
not to act.
Shri Krishna wants to give the appropriate answer to Arjun, a Kshatriya warrior. Our actions
are determined by two factors: Our profession & our stage in life.
According to Shri Krishna and Gita, we can classify our actions into three types:
● Obligatory duties towards our family, community & Ishvara
● Desire orientated actions &
● Prohibited actions
Shri Krishna answered by giving his views: one should give up
● All actions arising from desire &
● The attachment to the rewards of all types of actions
Actions based upon sacrifice, charity, and penance should never be abandoned; they must
certainly be performed. Indeed, acts of sacrifice, charity, and penance are purifying even for
those who are wise.
These activities must be performed without attachment and expectation for rewards.
Prescribed duties should never be renounced. Such deluded renunciation is said to be in the
mode of ignorance.
To give up prescribed duties because they are troublesome or cause bodily discomfort is
renunciation in the mode of passion. Such renunciation is never beneficial or elevating.
When actions are undertaken in response to duty, and one relinquishes attachment to any
reward, it is considered renunciation in the nature of goodness.
For the embodied being, it is impossible to give up activities entirely. But those who
relinquish the fruits of their actions are said to be truly renounced.
The three-fold fruits of actions—pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed—accrue even after death to
those who are attached to personal reward. But, for those who renounce the fruits of their
actions, there are no such results in the here or hereafter.
The five factors that have been mentioned for the accomplishment of all actions in the
doctrine of Sānkhya, which explains how to stop the reactions of karmas.
The body, the doer (soul), the various senses, the many kinds of efforts, and Divine
Providence—these are the five factors of action.
These five are the contributory factors for whatever action is performed, whether proper or
improper, with body, speech, or mind. Those who do not understand this regard the soul as
the only doer. With their impure intellects they cannot see things as they are.
Those who are free from the ego of being the doer, and whose intellect is unattached, though
they may slay living beings, they neither kill nor are they bound by actions.
Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower—these are the three factors that
induce action. The instrument of action, the act itself, and the doer—these are the three
constituents of action.
Knowledge, action, and the doer are declared to be of three kinds in the Sānkhya philosophy,
distinguished according to the three modes of material nature.
SATVIC –
Knowledge –Understand that knowledge to be in the mode of goodness by which a person
sees one undivided imperishable reality within all diverse living beings.
Action – Action that is in accordance with the scriptures, free from attachment and aversion,
and done without desire for rewards, is in the mode of goodness.
Doer – The performer is said to be in the mode of goodness, when he or she is free from
egotism and attachment, endowed with enthusiasm and determination, and equipoised in
success and failure.
RAJSIC –
Knowledge – knowledge is to be considered in the mode of passion by which one sees
manifold living entities in diverse bodies as individual and unconnected.
Action – Action that is prompted by selfish desire, enacted with pride, and full of stress, is in
the nature of passion.
Doer – The performer is considered in the mode of passion when he or she craves the fruits of
the work, is covetous, violent-natured, impure, and moved by joy and sorrow.
TAMSIC –
Knowledge –That knowledge is said to be in the mode of ignorance where one is engrossed
in a fragmental concept as if it encompasses the whole, and which is neither grounded in
reason nor based on the truth.
Action – That action is declared to be in the mode of ignorance, which is begun out of
delusion, without thought to one’s own ability, and disregarding consequences, loss, and
injury to others.
Doer – A performer in the mode of ignorance is one who is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn,
deceitful, slothful, despondent, and a procrastinator.
DISTINCTIONS OF INTELLECT AND DETERMINATION, ACCORDING TO THE
THREE MODES OF MATERIAL NATURE,

SATVIC – The intellect is said to be in the nature of goodness, O Parth, when it understands
what is proper action and improper action, what is duty and non-duty, what is to be feared
and what is not to be feared, what is binding and what is liberating.
RAJSIC – The intellect is considered in the mode of passion when it is confused between
righteousness and unrighteousness, and cannot distinguish between right and wrong conduct,.
TAMSIC – That intellect which is shrouded in darkness, imagining irreligion to be religion,
and perceiving untruth to be the truth, is of the nature of ignorance, O Parth.

SATVIC –The steadfast willpower that is developed through Yog, and which sustains the
activities of the mind, the life-airs, and the senses, is said to be determination in the mode of
goodness.
RAJSIC – The steadfast willpower by which one holds on to duty, pleasures, and wealth, out
of attachment and desire for rewards, O Arjun, is determination in the mode of passion.
TAMSIC – That unintelligent resolve is said to be determination in the mode of ignorance, in
which one does not give up dreaming, fearing, grieving, despair, and conceit.

THE THREE KINDS OF HAPPINESS IN WHICH THE EMBODIED SOUL

SATVIC – That which seems like poison at first, but tastes like nectar in the end, is said to be
happiness in the mode of goodness. It is generated by the pure intellect that is situated in self-
knowledge.
RAJSIC – Happiness is said to be in the mode of passion when it is derived from the contact
of the senses with their objects. Such happiness is like nectar at first but poison at the end.
TAMSIC – That happiness which covers the nature of the self from beginning to end, and
which is derived from sleep, indolence, and negligence, is said to be in the mode of
ignorance.

No living being on earth or the higher celestial abodes of this material realm is free from the
influence of these three modes of nature.
The duties of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras—are distributed
according to their qualities, in accordance with their guṇas (and not by birth).
Tranquility, restraint, austerity, purity, patience, integrity, knowledge, wisdom, and belief in a
hereafter—these are the intrinsic qualities of work for Brahmins.
Valor, strength, fortitude, skill in weaponry, resolve never to retreat from battle, large-
heartedness in charity, and leadership abilities, these are the natural qualities of work for
Kshatriyas.
Agriculture, dairy farming, and commerce are the natural works for those with the qualities of
Vaishyas.
Serving through work is the natural duty for those with the qualities of Shudras.
By fulfilling their duties, born of their innate qualities, human beings can attain perfection.
By performing one’s natural occupation, one worships the Creator from whom all living
entities have come into being, and by whom the whole universe is pervaded. By such
performance of work, a person easily attains perfection.
It is better to do one’s own dharma, even though imperfectly, than to do another’s dharma,
even though perfectly. By doing one’s innate duties, a person does not incur sin.
One should not abandon duties born of one’s nature, even if one sees defects in them. Indeed,
all endeavours are veiled by some evil, as fire is by smoke.
Those whose intellect is unattached everywhere, who have mastered the mind, and are free
from desires by the practice of renunciation, attain the highest perfection of freedom from
action.
One becomes fit to attain Brahman when he or she possesses a purified intellect and firmly
restrains the senses, abandoning sound and other objects of the senses, casting aside attraction
and aversion. Such a person relishes solitude, eats lightly, controls body, mind, and speech, is
ever engaged in meditation, and practices dispassion. Free from egotism, violence, arrogance,
desire, possessiveness of property, and selfishness, such a person, situated in tranquillity, is fit
for union with Brahman (i.e., realization of the Absolute Truth as Brahman).
One situated in the transcendental Brahman realization becomes mentally serene, neither
grieving nor desiring. Being equitably disposed toward all living beings, such a yogi attains
supreme devotion unto Me.
Only by loving devotion to Me does one come to know who I am in Truth. Then, having
come to know Me, My devotee enters into full consciousness of Me.
My devotees, though performing all kinds of actions, take full refuge in Me. By My grace,
they attain the eternal and imperishable abode.
The Supreme Lord dwells in the hearts of all living beings. According to their karmas, He
directs the wanderings of the souls, who are seated on a machine made of material energy.