Yog of Knowledge and Action
Chapter 4, Verse 19
yasya sarve samārambhāḥ
kāma saṅkalpa varjitāḥ
jñānāgni dagdha karmāṇāṁ
tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṁ budhāḥ
Whose undertakings are free from desire, whose works are burned up by the fire of knowledge, him the wise have called a sage.
Here Krishna says that a truly wise one has the true knowledge of God, which brings him perfection and discipline.
“… whose works are burned up by the fire of knowledge.” As fire reduces everything to ashes, the fire of wisdom reduces all desires to ashes. When one has this wisdom, one is “called a sage”, a saint, by the wise ones. If you take a pan and roast some seeds in it, you can try to plant them afterwards, but they will not grow. A yogi is like this – he has roasted all the seeds of desire, so that they won’t grow. They lose all the capacity to sprout and can’t bear any fruit. How then, can the fruit of action – karma – be created? It can’t be. This is what Krishna means when He says, “...whose works are burned up by the fire of knowledge”, the fire of wisdom.
The sage perceives the Truth; he has attained perfection through Karma Yoga. His mind is completely absorbed in the Divine, he is completely surrendered, fulfilling what God wants; he renounces all sense of doership, possession, and attachment. He doesn’t have any expectation about gaining something or not gaining something. So it takes patience, courage, and wisdom to become a sage. It takes time. Nevertheless, everyone can become a sage: when one is completely surrendered, the Divine will shine through one, all the divine qualities will emanate from within one. This will automatically bring one to the state where one is not attached to action, inaction, or anything.
Bhagavad Gita
