The fifth chapter titled “Karma Sanyaasa Yoga” began with Arjuna’s question to Shri Krishna. The question was : what was better, renouncing all actions and becoming a monk, or performing actions as a karma yogi? Shri Krishna addressed this question by reiterating a nuance that Arjuna had missed.
 
Renouncing of actions did not mean giving up the physical performance of actions, it meant renouncing the sense of doership, the sense that “I am doing something”. In order to get to this stage, one has to have purified one’s mind completely of desires. In that regards, performing actions in the spirit of karmayoga was the correct course of action for Arjuna, since he still harboured desires. As one continues to dedicate the result of actions to Ishvara, one’s sense of enjoyership and doership automatically diminishes.
 
Next, Shri Krishna expounded upon the vision of realized seeker. He provided a detailed illustration of body, mind and intellect functioning on their own, including the acts of perception, cognition and intellect’s response to stimuli. All these acts in reality happen without the involvement of “I”. The illustration that the “I” resides in a city of nine gates was given to further drive home the point.
 
Another aspect of the realized seeker’s vision is his “sama drishti” or the sameness of vision. The realized seeker sees the same eternal essence in a human, elephant, dog, dog eater. Not only that, he also sees the same eternal essence in positive and negative experiences. He holds the convictions that these “defects” or modifications are part of prakriti. He does not view these defects as part of the eternal essence since the eternal essence is ever perfect.
 
Then Shri Krishna explained that just like the eternal essence in the body does not cause action, so too does the eternal essence at the cosmic level not cause action. Neither does the eternal essence connect results to actions, nor does it dole out sin and merit. All these transaction happen inside prakriti or nature. The example of the Pac Man video game was given in order to illustrate that prakriti is an automated system that works just like a video game. It rewards and punishes actions based on well-defined rules, without the need for external intervention.
 
In the closing shlokas of the fifth chapter, Shri Krishna slowly begins pointing us toward meditation. Meditation is the only way for the seeker to get fully established in the eternal essence. The primary goal has to be the realization of eternal essence and nothing else, this thirst is needed. Next, Shri Krishna informs us that it is the sense contacts that are obstacles to meditation. Our mind rushes our due to the urges generated desire and anger. Only by controlling this urge can we progress towards meditation.
 
Lastly, Shri Krishna elaborates on the state of a liberated seeker. Such a seeker has discovered the infinite joy within himself. He finds no need to rush outside into the world for joy and bliss.

The journey from the first chapter to the fourth chapter is one of higher and higher levels of integrating or tuning our personality. In the first chapter, we are at the level of selfish action, where we see gain and loss in everything we do. As we move into the second and third chapters, we are introduced to the notion of “nishkaam karma” or desire-less action. Here, we slowly give up attachment to the result of our action by dedicating it to a higher ideal.
 
In this chapter titled “Jnyaana Karma Sanyaasa Yoga”, we move one level higher from desire-less action to agency-less action. What does agency-less action mean? As the key shloka in this chapter indicates, it is the ability to see inaction in action and action in inaction. When we are operating at the level of a karmayogi, we express our desires through performing actions, but we diminish our sense of “mine-ness” or enjoyership by dedicating all the results to Ishvara.
 
But as we progress on this path, we begin to realize that all actions happen through Maaya, also known as prakriti or nature. Even actions like the surgeon conducting surgery happen through Maaya, upon closer inspection. We realize that the I, the eternal essence, is just the witness. The I does not do anything. This is agency-less action. Our sense of doership or “I-ness” begins to diminish as well.
 
Ultimately everything is yajnya in brahman. This is a very deep and subtle means of looking at the world. To help us practice developing this vision, Shri Krishna gives us simpler yajnyas such as restraining our senses, worship of a deity and so on. But the end goal is jnaana yagnya or the sacrifice of knowledge. The next chapter goes into more detail about the characteristics that we have to develop in order to be able to realize this very subtle and deep vision.
 
This chapter also gives us a glimpse of Ishvara, the cosmic power and intelligence that controls this universe. Although beyond birth and imperishable, that power manifests itself whenever there is an extreme disharmony in the universe, restores harmony and becomes unmanifest again.
 

In chapter 2, Shri Krishna explained that the ultimate spiritual goal is the elimination of our vaasanaas. In chapter 3, he provides the technique of karmayoga which is the first step that all of us have to take in order to begin the process of elimination of vaasanaas.
 
First, he stressed the need to convince ourselves that we have to act. We simply cannot think that we can eliminate vaasanaas by not acting. Once we have convinced that we have to act, we have to adopt the attitude of karmayoga so that further actions do not cause bondage. The attitude of karmayoga comprises five aspects of knowledge or buddhi that we need to maintain while performing any action:
 
1. Samatva Buddhi : We need remain calm but alert in all situations. As the earlier chapter explained, situations are transient, they come and go. Having understood that they are transient, we should not get overly excited or agitated with each new situation.
 
2. Svadharma Buddhi : We should conduct self-analysis to understand where our strongest desires lie, and then deploy those desires in the service of a higher ideal. 
 
3. Samarpana Buddhi : We should always dedicate all our actions to something that is higher than us. We should remember that the entire universe is operating in a spirit of yajma. Whatever we own is material that is in the service of the yajna, it is not ours.
 
4. Asanga Buddhi : We should constantly assess whether we are attached to any material object, person, emotion, position or action. In other words, we should analyze our relationship with those things to understand whether we give so much importance to a thing that we cannot do without it. We should also remember that everything is the gunaas acting on the gunaas. Therefore, we should work with no expectation of the future, and no burden of the past.
 
5. Prasaada Buddhi : While we perform actions, we should not keep an eye on the result. We should accept every result as a “prasaada”. If we get attached to one type of result, whether it be positive or negative, the opposite or the complement of that result will torture us and bind us.
 

Since the second chapter is said to contain the essence of the entire Gita, let’s try to recap the main points before we move to the third chapter:
 
1. Shri Krishna points out the error in Arjuna’s thinking, in that Arjuna’s personality was shaken by grief and delusion towards his kinsmen
2. He advises Arjuna to correct the error by learning the knowledge of the eternal essence
3. He describes the means to attain the eternal essence
4. He also describes the characteristics of the individual who has realized the eternal essence.
 
We can summarize the technique to attain the eternal essence into 3 stages:
1. Attain steadfastness in selfless action by pursuing one’s svadharma
2. Attain steadfastness in devotion to a higher ideal
3. Attain steadfastness in the knowledge of the eternal essence or tattva-jnyana
 

Footnotes
1. Most commentators agree that the chapters of the Gita map to the Upanishadic statement “Tat tvam asi” or “You are that”. The first 6 chapters cover the “tvam” or the “you” aspect, the next 6 cover the “tat” or the “That” aspect”, and the final 6 chapters cover the “asi” or the “are” aspect.

We are about to begin our journey into the second chapter of the Gita. Let us take this opportunity to orient ourselves, so that we can get the most out of our journey.
 
The second chapter is an extremely important chapter, perhaps the most important chapter of the Gita. It is long and contains most of the oft-quotes verses of the Gita. It also introduces most of the key themes of the Gita at a high level. The rest of the Gita picks up these themes and elaborates on them. Therefore there is a variety of topics that we shall get to see in the second chapter.
 
Looking back at the first chapter, we can see that it covered topics that any person could easily identify with. The second chapter will be different in this respect. It will tackle a mix of the practical as well as the spiritual, because the Gita treats both aspects as integral to living life correctly.
 
The second chapter will also introduce abstract concepts that may initially seem unfamiliar and hard to understand. The attitude here should be like the person who is visiting a prominent art gallery for the first time. You will see landscapes as well as modern art. The first time you come across modern art you may not understand it, but slowly through exposure and repetition, you begin to appreciate its nuances.
 
We will begin chapter 2 where chapter 1 left us, in the battlefield, where Arjuna had discarded his weapons.