In Chap­ter IV of the Bha­gavad-Gita, titled “The Book of the Reli­gion of Knowl­edge,” Lord Krish­na reveals the sacred and ancient prac­tice of Yoga, ini­tial­ly taught to Vivaswa­ta, and how it was passed down through gen­er­a­tions of sages but even­tu­al­ly lost with time. To Arju­na, his friend and dis­ci­ple, Krish­na makes known this for­got­ten knowl­edge, empha­siz­ing the cyclic nature of his own births and the pur­pose behind his divine rein­car­na­tions. When­ev­er right­eous­ness wanes and unright­eous­ness grows strong, Krish­na incar­nates to restore bal­ance. He elu­ci­dates that those who under­stand the divine truth of his man­i­fes­ta­tions tran­scend the cycle of rebirth and achieve eter­nal uni­ty with him.

Krish­na expands on the con­cept of action and inac­tion, stat­ing that true knowl­edge leads to the real­iza­tion that all actions are dri­ven by the nature of the uni­verse, not by the self. By act­ing with­out attach­ment to the fruits of actions, one can achieve the ulti­mate state of free­dom and peace. He stress­es that sac­ri­fices made in the spir­it of knowl­edge puri­fy the soul more effec­tive­ly than mate­r­i­al offer­ings. True wis­dom leads to action that is unaf­fect­ed by desires, con­tribut­ing to the lib­er­a­tion of the soul.

Fur­ther­more, Krish­na dis­tin­guish­es between mere renun­ci­a­tion of actions and the renun­ci­a­tion of the results of actions, advo­cat­ing for the lat­ter as the path to supreme bliss. He under­scores the impor­tance of per­form­ing one’s duty with­out attach­ment, which aligns one with the divine, lead­ing to lib­er­a­tion.

Chap­ter V begins with Arju­na’s con­fu­sion about the seem­ing­ly con­tra­dic­to­ry teach­ings on renun­ci­a­tion of actions and the duty to act. Krish­na clar­i­fies that both paths lead to enlight­en­ment, but act­ing self­less­ly in accor­dance with one’s duty is supe­ri­or. He explains that a wise per­son sees the uni­ty in all beings and acts with­out ego, achiev­ing peace and eter­nal union with Brah­man, the ulti­mate real­i­ty. Such a per­son lives in joy and equa­nim­i­ty, unaf­fect­ed by the dual­i­ties of life. Krish­na con­cludes by stress­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of liv­ing with a spir­it of detach­ment, focus­ing on inner spir­i­tu­al­i­ty rather than exter­nal rit­u­als.

These chap­ters con­vey the essence of spir­i­tu­al enlight­en­ment through the path of knowl­edge and self­less action, empha­siz­ing uni­ty with the divine and lib­er­a­tion from the cycle of birth and rebirth.