Chapter 2 is the Gita in miniature — Krishna's first and fullest reply to Arjuna's collapse. He begins with what death can and cannot touch: the soul is never born and never dies (2.20); as a person discards worn-out garments for new ones, the embodied self exchanges bodies (2.22); weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it (2.23). For what is born, death is certain — so grief over the inevitable is misplaced (2.27). Sensations of pleasure and pain come and go like seasons; bear them patiently (2.14).
Then the teaching turns practical. In its most famous line, Krishna gives the charter of karma yoga: you have a right to your action, never to its fruits (2.47) — and equanimity in success and failure is itself yoga (2.48). The chapter closes with Arjuna's question about the sage of steady wisdom, and Krishna's portrait of a mind free of longing, fear, and anger (2.56): undisturbed like the ocean that rivers flow into without swelling (2.70). Anger's famous chain — dwelling, attachment, desire, anger, ruin — is mapped in 2.62–63.
Key verses
The soul is never born, nor does it ever die. It has no coming into being and will not cease to exist. It is unborn, eternal, permanent, and primeval. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.
You have a right to perform your duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.
Just as the ocean remains undisturbed though waters constantly flow into it, so too the sage remains undisturbed by desires that flow into the mind. Such a person attains peace, not one who craves objects.
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