Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga
Krishna reveals that this teaching is not new — he first gave it to the sun-god Vivasvan at the dawn of creation, and it has since been lost and needs restating. This leads to the Gita's most famous statement of divine descent: whenever dharma declines and adharma rises, Krishna takes birth age after age to protect the good, destroy evildoers and restore righteousness. He explains that his own birth and action are divine, not binding, and that one who understands this truth about him is not reborn but comes to him directly. The chapter reframes the Gita's central puzzle — how can action not bind? — by describing 'inaction in action, and action in inaction' as the mark of a wise person, and surveys different paths of sacrifice (yajna) that people offer, from ritual to breath control to the sacrifice of self-restraint. It closes by praising knowledge as the great purifier, burning away all past action as fire burns wood to ash.
“Though I am unborn and imperishable in nature, and the Lord of all beings, yet, ruling over my own nature, I come into being through my own power (maya).”
“Whenever righteousness declines, Arjuna, and unrighteousness rises up, I send myself forth.”
One of the Gita's most famous verses — the doctrine of divine descent (avatara), paired with 4.8.
“For the protection of the good, the destruction of evildoers, and the establishment of dharma, I come into being age after age.”
“One who truly knows my divine birth and action in this way is not born again on leaving the body, but comes to me.”
“The fourfold order was created by me, according to the divisions of quality and action; though I am its author, know me to be the eternal non-doer.”
“One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; such a person is a yogi, having accomplished all action.”
“In this world there is no purifier equal to knowledge; one who is perfected in yoga finds this within the self, in time.”
Chapter summaries composed for MyBrahman; verse translations from the public-domain Kashinath Trimbak Telang translation (1882, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 8) where directly checkable, and/or widely-attested traditional renderings of famous verses, cited by standard chapter.verse numbering.