One joined with the understanding, with the understanding of evenness toward action, casts off here, in this world, both the well-done and the ill-done, merit and demerit, through the attainment of purity of being and of knowledge. Therefore yoke yourself to yoga, the understanding of evenness, exert yourself for it; for yoga is skill in actions. For one engaged in the actions called his own duty, the understanding of evenness toward success and failure, with the mind given over to the Lord, is that skill; and the skill lies in this, that even actions whose nature is to bind, through the understanding of evenness, of their own accord turn away from one. So be joined with the understanding of evenness. Since.

But one who acts joined with the discipline of understanding casts off both good and ill deed, gathered through beginningless time, endless, the cause of bondage. Therefore yoke yourself to the said discipline of understanding. Yoga is skill in actions: in actions being done, this discipline of understanding is skill, a surpassing capacity, that is, it is to be accomplished by a surpassing capacity.

Krishna states the fruit of knowledge with 'joined with the buddhi'. The man of knowledge gives up even meritorious action when its fruit is unwelcome, a human birth and the like, but not the great fruit that springs from worship and the rest, as the scriptures show, 'his action does not perish' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.15), 'whoever offers, sacrifices and does austerity in this world without knowing it, what he wins comes to an end' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.8.10). Hence the scripture about the perishing of action everywhere has the ignorant for its scope, and the scripture about the perishing of both merit and demerit has the unwelcome for its scope; for there is no purpose in the perishing of welcome merit, and the destruction of what is welcome is not fitting for the man of knowledge. Some objects are welcome, as the scriptures say: 'if he desires the world of the fathers, by his mere resolve the fathers rise up for him' (Chandogya Upanishad 8.2.1), 'I enter the hall and house of Prajapati, I become the glory of the brahmanas' (Chandogya Upanishad 8.14.1), 'with women, or with chariots' (Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.3), 'from this very self he sends forth whatever he desires' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.15), 'eating at will, ranging at will' (Taittiriya Upanishad 3.10.5), 'he becomes one, he becomes many' (Chandogya Upanishad 7.26.2). Though the self's bliss is manifold, since it remains welcome it does not conflict with the joy that comes through such things, and the power to experience it comes from the Lord's grace and from scripture. And this is not only before the falling of the body, since it is heard of afterward as well, 'he moves about there' (Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.3), 'having reached this self made of bliss' (Taittiriya Upanishad 3.10.5). Nor is the liberated one simply become one with Brahman, for the Moksha-dharma censures that, 'for one sunk in the supreme ignorance, what could be more painful?'; and in the answer a separate enjoyment is named, and Suka and others are seen as distinct, and the limit set on the liberated being's lordship is declared, 'except the running of the world' (Brahma-sutra 4.4.17), and the Gita says 'taking refuge in this knowledge, they have come to a likeness with Me' (14.3), and the reflection perishes when the medium perishes. We see no proof that one already become Brahman has separate cognition; and the Lord cannot have the cognition 'I was unhappy, I was not', for that conflicts with His knowledge, and there is no difference left to be marked by the words 'in this form'. Nor do we see in the world the oneness of a reflection with its original, nor any proof of one when the medium perishes; and the words 'for one sunk in the supreme ignorance' declare that state to be of the nature of pain. The Brahma-sutra also declares the medium to be everlasting, 'because it lasts as long as the self lasts' (2.3.30). Therefore the texts that seem to speak of no-otherness, even where they so appear, are figurative. Narada saw the liberated as distinct from the Lord, and in texts like 'in each branch he is single' (Chandogya Upanishad 7.26.2) they appear with difference. Where there is a conflict, the stronger force belongs to those who have reasoning on their side, and the reasonings here are the ones given, 'for one sunk' and the rest. Hence the union is like the becoming-one of water with water. So it is said, 'as pure water poured into pure' (Katha Upanishad 4.15), 'as the rivers' (Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.8), and the like; and even there, were each the very self of the other, no increase would be possible, yet there is a slight increase even in the ocean at its inlet, though elsewhere, because of its vastness, it is not seen. The Maha-kaurma says, 'those very waters the sage of well-tried vows gave to him'. And it follows from the discernment of difference by the competent. The Naradiya too denies identity, 'these gods, Brahma, Ishana and the rest, do not attain that; that station of yours is your sole isolation'. A reasoned conclusion has been settled in the Moksha-dharma sections, and a reasoned conclusion is stronger than a bare sentence. Hence even 'where he sees nothing else' (Chandogya Upanishad 7.24.1) and the like speak of an existence and the rest that is dependent on Him; otherwise how could lordship and the rest belong to the liberated? And it has been said that the world is not made of maya; otherwise how, in that very place, could scripture say 'he becomes one, he becomes many'? There is no conflict with 'truly there is no warding off of the pleasant and unpleasant for one with a body' (Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.1), because the bodies of the liberated are of a different kind. They are non-material, fashioned by the Lord's power out of the everlasting medium, as it is said, 'their body is born of a sixteen-fold portion alone' (Narayana-rama-kalpa). And the word of negation is used of what is merely unlike the worldly, as in 'without thrill, without bliss' and 'beyond pleasure and pain'. By the absence of the proper etymology too they are not bodies in the ordinary sense, for the scripture says 'that body of his became bodiless'. They do not decay, as the verse says, 'they are not born even at creation, and at dissolution they do not suffer' (14.2). The word 'body' is applied to them only by likeness, and by usage, as in 'without senses, without food, without motion, fragrant' (Mahabharata 12.337.29), 'of the dwellers in Vaikuntha, who are without body, senses and vital airs' (Bhagavata 7.1.34). Nor is this some other, secondary release, for the Aditya Purana denies any release apart from it, 'what need of much speech here? until he goes to Shveta, the yogin is not released; this is the verdict of scripture'. Those who enter the Lord here too go thereafter to that same place; and fitness for it is what is meant. In Yudhishthira's question the other kinds are censured. The merging-union (sayujya) is like a possessing spirit, as it is said, 'as the gods, the possessing spirits and the rest, having reached the Person, enjoy, so in the highest release they enjoy the outer joys' (Narayanashtakshara-kalpa). Therefore it is only the unwelcome that is separated off, and that separation does hold in every way, as the texts show, 'free of pain', 'rid of all pain', 'free of grief' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5.10), 'going where they grieve not', and the rest, and because there is no text saying otherwise in particular. Those of whom a slight difference is seen have not reached the merging-union; theirs is only nearness and the like, because of a remnant of the action that has begun to bear fruit; having enjoyed that, they go to the merging-union. So it is said, 'Sankarshana and all the rest, immediately after their office, enter the supreme God, Vishnu; there is no doubt of this' (Vyasa-yoga). Therefore the unwelcome is separated off in every way. The supreme Brahmanhood is what even Brahma and the rest pray for, 'I desire the state of the supreme Brahman, O Janardana, supreme Brahman'; and there is the text, 'there is nowhere any happiness like, or greater than, release, except the Vaishnava bliss, great and beyond speech and mind'. So it is established that release is a happiness greater even than the station of Brahma and the rest. Therefore gird yourself for yoga, for the means that is knowledge; that is skill in action.