Topic

Self-knowledge

2 verses from the Bhagavad Gita on Self-knowledge. Explore teachings across 1 chapter.

All Verses

Chapter 5 • Verse 8 →The Yoga of Renunciation
Naiva kinchit karomiti yukto manyeta tattva-vit, pashyan shrinvan sprishan jighran ashnan gacchan svapan shvasan

The knower of truth who is united in yoga thinks 'I do nothing at all' — even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, and breathing. All activities are seen as happening through the senses in their natural field, not through the true Self.

  • •The realized person sees the ego as non-doer
  • •All activities belong to the instruments, not the Self
  • •True knowledge dissolves the sense of personal authorship
non-doershiptattva-jnanaego dissolutionwitness consciousness
Chapter 5 • Verse 16 →The Yoga of Renunciation
Jnanena tu tad ajnanam yesham nashitam atmanah, tesham aditya-vaj jnanam prakashayati tat param

But for those in whom this ignorance of the Self is destroyed by knowledge, that knowledge illuminates the Supreme like the sun reveals all things. Self-knowledge is the most powerful force — it dissolves the darkness of ignorance entirely.

  • •Self-knowledge destroys the root of ignorance
  • •Jnana illuminates the Supreme Reality like sunlight illuminates the world
  • •Liberation is the natural result of the removal of ignorance
jnanailluminationliberationignorance destroyed