Srimad Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3 – Karma-Yoga “Yoga Through the Path of Action” 

When the living entity has heard Sri Krisna’s instructions, he understands that Karma-Yoga, the path of spiritual advancement where the fruit of one’s pious action is offered to the Lord, consists of endeavors in service to Him that are performed without selfish desires for sense enjoyment, accepting the garb of a renunciation is not actual renunciation but hypocrisy and it can never bring auspiciousness. The living entity should perform his prescribed duty as service to Bhagavan because performing that duty for sense enjoyment produces no auspicious result. 

Performance of prescribed duty, such as Vedic sacrifices, can award mundane sense pleasure, but such pleasure is temporary and mixed with distress. Offering the Lord, the fruit of one’s actions, however, purifies the heart. It is therefore auspicious to abandon negligence of one’s prescribed duty as well as abandon sinful acts and the selfishly motivated performance of one’s duty, and instead selflessly perform that duty, offering its result to Bhagavan. 

Chapter 4 – Jnana-Yoga “Yoga Through Transcendental Knowledge” 

The Fourth Chapter begins with instructions on jnana-yoga, the path of spiritual advancement through transcendental knowledge. It first explains that one can only obtain genuine knowledge of the Truth by receiving this mercy is to hear from a person in a bona fide disciple succession. That transcendental knowledge cannot possibly be attained through mundane learning, intelligence or knowledge. This chapter also explains that an incarnation of the supreme lord appears in every millennium. The birth and activities of the Lord are divine, and it is foolish and offensive to consider them mundane. One attains this knowledge of the Absolute Truth in the association of a self-realized spiritual master. One gradually hears from him about the unique characteristics of communion with the Lord through such knowledge and its superiority over linking with Him by offering him the fruit of one’s work. 

Article from SVMM Magazine 2013