Chapter 2Verse 50 of 72

Bhagavad Gita 2.50

बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते । तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् ॥

buddhi-yukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛta-duṣkṛte | tasmād yogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam ||

Translation

A man possessed of understanding casts off both merit and demerit here. Therefore apply yourself to yoga. Yoga is skill in action.

The chapter's working definition, second pass: yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam. Yoga is skill in action. Not skill in technique; skill in the relation to action. Sukṛta-duṣkṛte, the merit and demerit ordinarily produced by deeds, both fall away. The bound-up doer who accumulates karmic credit and debit is replaced by the doer whose work passes through clean. Notice the chapter's teaching method: each definition is restated, refined, restated again. The teaching does not introduce a new concept; it deepens the same one until it becomes liveable.

Reflection

Where have you been working on technique when the relation to the work was the real lesson?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Two

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