Chapter II, Section 1c

But the states of mind of those who have no firm understanding are many-branched and endless. The state of mind consisting in firm understanding regarding steady contemplation does not belong to those, O son of P ri thâ! who are strongly attached to (worldly) pleasures and power, and whose minds are drawn away by that flowery talk which is full of (ordinances of) specific acts for the attainment of (those) pleasures and (that) power, and which promises birth as the fruit of acts --(that flowery talk) which those unwise ones utter, who are enamoured of Vedic words, who say there is nothing else, who are full of desires, and whose goal is heaven . The Vedas (merely) relate to the effects of the three qualities ; do you, O Ar g una! rise above those effects of the three qualities, and be free from the pairs of opposites , always preserve courage , be free from anxiety for new acquisitions or protection of old acquisitions, and be self-controlled . To the instructed Brâhma n a, there is in all the Vedas as much utility as in a reservoir of water into which waters flow from all sides . Your business is with action alone; not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive (to action). Let not your attachment be (fixed) on inaction . Having recourse to devotion, O Dhanañ g aya! perform actions, casting off (all) attachment, and being equable in success or ill-success; (such) equability is called devotion. Action, O Dhanañ g aya! is far inferior to the devotion of the mind. In that devotion seek shelter. Wretched are those whose motive (to action) is the fruit (of action). He who has obtained devotion in this world casts off both merit and sin . Therefore apply yourself to devotion; devotion in (all) actions is wisdom. The wise who have obtained devotion cast off the fruit of action; and released from the shackles of (repeated)births , repair to that seat where there is no unhappiness . When your mind shall have crossed beyond the taint of delusion, then will you become indifferent to all that you have heard or will heard . When your mind, confounded by what you have heard , will stand firm and steady in contemplation , then will you acquire devotion. Ar g una said: What are the characteristics, O Kesava! of one whose mind is steady, and who is intent on contemplation? How should one of steady mind speak, how sit, how move? The Deity said: When a man, O son of P ri thâ! abandons all the desires of his heart, and is pleased in his self only and by his self , he is then called one of steady mind. He whose heart is not agitated in the midst of calamities, who has no longing for pleasures, and from whom (the feelings of) affection, fear, and wrath have departed, is called a sage of steady mind. His mind is steady, who, being without attachments anywhere, feels no exultation and no aversion on encountering the various agreeable and disagreeable (things of this world). A man's mind is steady, when he withdraws his senses from (all) objects of sense, as the tortoise (withdraws) its limbs from all sides. Objects of sense draw back from a person who is abstinent; not so the taste (for those objects). But even the taste departs from him, when he has seen the Supreme . The boisterous senses, O son of Kuntî! carry away by force the mind even of a wise man, who exerts himself (for final emancipation). Restraining them all, a man should remain engaged in devotion, making me his only resort.