Confused by Krishna’s emphasis on knowledge in the fourth chapter (04.34-42) and especially by his concluding call to fight with the metaphorical sword of knowledge (04.42), Arjuna asks Krishna about his differing guidelines: first renunciation of work, then working selflessly — among these, which would be the best for his long-term welfare? (05.01)

Krishna replies by acknowledging that both renouncing work and working selflessly will promote Arjuna’s long-term welfare, but among them working selflessly is better (05.02). Expanding Arjuna’s understanding of renunciation, Krishna explains that one who neither resents nor craves the results of their work is always a sannyasi — being thus situated beyond duality, they can happily progress toward freedom (05.03). Cultivating analytical knowledge that often leads to renunciation of the world (sankhya) and working with detachment — these two paths are considered different only by the immature, not by the wise; if Arjuna becomes situated in either of the paths, he will attain the results of both (05.04). The destination attained by cultivating knowledge is the same as that attained by working selflessly: freedom. One who sees that both paths are the same, in that they share a common purpose, is a true seer (05.05). After explaining how the two paths are similar, Krishna now highlights how they differ. Renunciation becomes difficult to attain or sustain if one has not been adequately purified by selfless action; in contrast, one who acts selflessly, while striving to be contemplative (muni), attains the supreme reality (brahma) without much delay or difficulty (05.06). 

Specifying how such a person stays free from bondage while working, Krishna states that one who works selflessly, striving for purity and mastery over the mind and the senses, sees the spiritual oneness of all living beings (05.07). Explaining how such a vision also informs one’s performance of action in the world, Krishna states that a person working selflessly knows that they (the atma) are not the doers; in all bodily actions such as seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing, speaking, releasing, retaining or even closing or opening one’s eyes — it is just the senses that are interacting with worldly objects (05.08-09). With such a vision, one who renounces the fruits of their work, offering it all to the supreme reality, stays free from all sinful reactions, just as a lotus leaf floating in water stays clean and dry (05.10).