When your understanding crosses beyond the thicket of delusion, the muddiness whose nature is delusion and whose form is want of discernment, by which, having muddied the discerning awareness of self and not-self, the inner instrument turns toward objects: when your understanding crosses beyond that and comes to a state utterly cleansed, then you will reach dispassion toward what is to be heard and what has been heard; then what is to be heard and what has been heard will appear to you as fruitless. When, having crossed the thicket of delusion and gained the insight born of the discernment of the Self, shall I reach the fruit of the yoga of action, the supreme yoga? Hear that.

When your understanding, of one acting in the manner described and freed of taint by that conduct, shall cross over the thicket of delusion, the delusion-shaped foulness that is the cause of attachment to slight fruits, then you will of yourself reach indifference toward the fruit and the rest, the fruits heard from us before as to be given up and those that are to be heard hereafter. The Lord states the fruit, called yoga, which is the mark of the performance of action refined by the particular understanding, action preceded by knowledge of the self as it truly is, spoken of in 'hear this in regard to yoga' and the rest.

Up to what point must a seeker of release necessarily do such actions? Krishna answers with 'when your buddhi crosses beyond the thicket of delusion'. 'Nirveda' here means thorough attainment; so it is used elsewhere, 'therefore, having thoroughly attained learning, let the brahmana stand by strength of self' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.5.1). Dispassion does not fit there, for if it did, the sense would be dispassion arising from learning. And dispassion does not arise in men of knowledge from hearing the Lord's greatness and the rest, as the text says, 'for the sages who delight in the self, free of every bond, offer unmotived devotion to the wide-striding One; such are the qualities of Hari' (Bhagavata 1.7.10), and as the practice of Suka and others shows. Nor is happiness no fruit for them, for that very knowledge is the great happiness, as the text says of them, 'the bliss, O Lord, that embodied beings might have from meditation on your lotus feet or from hearing the tales of your devotees, let that not be found in Brahman, in one's own glory; how much less for those falling from a wrecked aerial car' (Bhagavata 4.9.10). For them too the fruit of worship and the rest is established, and a gradation among them is made out. For if there were no gradation, there would be no point in texts such as 'they do not reckon even an unending grace as anything' (Bhagavata 3.15.48), 'some do not crave oneness with Me' (Bhagavata 2.25.34), 'even oneness, though offered, they do not accept'. For those who do not desire even release, release itself is still the fruit; and for those, such as Supratika, who do desire it, it also comes about. How otherwise could the praise of those who do not desire it be fitting? And there is the text, 'as a special devotion to the supreme Person is seen here, so too there is a special release for the men of knowledge, in the distinction of their marks'; and 'for the yogins, whose marks are distinct, whose own form has come to light, who have attained the supreme bliss, there is gradation, always indeed'; and 'they will never surpass you, even in release; through the yoga of devotion to Me and through knowledge you will surpass all'. The text of equality has plenitude for its scope, and the absence of pain for its scope; so it is said, 'the absence of pain, the supreme bliss, the distinction of marks, are held to be the same for all; yet the supreme bliss itself differs by the difference of knowledge' (Narayanashtakshara-kalpa). Therefore dispassion is not what is meant here in the matter of what is to be heard and what has been heard. There is no proof at all for narrowing 'nirveda' to dispassion; the use elsewhere being available, the sense is that you will attain the fruit of the Veda and the rest, which is to be heard, and has been heard, from the great ones.