(18) O Arjuna! One should not abandon the duty to which he is born, though it is attended with evil; all undertakings are indeed enveloped by evil, like fire by smoke.

(3) O Arjuna! As the ignorant men work with attachment to action, so should the wise act without attachment, for the welfare of the world.

(3) One’s own duty, ill-performed and without merit, is better than the duty of another well-discharged. Better is death in discharging one’s own duty. Another’s duty is fraught with fear.

(30) The conclusion is this, that every one who performs a great duty has then much value.

(18) O Arjuna! bound by your own Karma, born of your own nature, that which in a deluded state you do not wish to do, even that you will do helplessly.

(18) By fulfilling their duties, born of their innate qualities, human beings can attain perfection. Now hear from me how one can become perfect by discharging one’s prescribed duties.

(18) (O Arjuna !) Listen again to My supreme word, the profoundest of all. You are dear to me and faithful. Therefore I shall tell you what is for your good

(18) Better is one’s own duty though destitute of merits or incomplete than the duty of another well performed; the man who performs action ordained by his own nature does not incur sin.

(12) O Arjuna! Those verily who renounce all actions in Me, think of Me as the only refuge and worship Me with single-minded devotion and Dhyana, to them I become the saviour and quickly lift them up from the ocean of death and ‘samsara’.

(4) Those who understand the divine nature of my birth and activities, O Arjun, upon leaving the body, do not have to take birth again, but come to my eternal abode.

(15) Thus, Ο sinless one, has this most profound teaching been imparted by Me. By knowing it a man becomes wise, Ο Bhārata, and fulfills all his duties.

(5) O Arjuna! He who neither hates nor desires should be known as of eternal renunciation; He who is not subject to the pairs of opposites is easily set free from bondage.

(1) As by the laws of the primeval world, so will our spiritual chieftain act (that chief besought-for by the Kine , and named as Zarathustra by the Lord). Deeds most just he will do toward the wicked, as toward the righteous, and toward him whose deeds of fraud and righteous deeds combine (in equal measure).

(19) As, then, in war the soldier must not leave the post which the commander has assigned him, so neither must we desert the post assigned by the Word, whom we have received as the guide of knowledge and of life. But the most have not even inquired, if there is one that we ought to follow, and who this is, and how lie is to be followed. For as is the Word, such also must the believer's life be, so as to be able to follow God, who brings all things to end from the beginning by the right course.

(21) Every man takes refuge in some form of service, And chooses for himself some asylum; Do thou seek refuge in the shadow of the wise man, Of all forms of service this is fittest for thee; Having chosen thy Director, be submissive to him, Even as Moses submitted to the commands of Khizr; Have patience with Khizr's actions, O sincere one! Lest he say, 'There is a partition between us.' Though he stave in thy boat, yet hold thy peace; Though he slay a young man, heave not a sigh.

(39) Such men are very much in earnest and give great diligence to the work, and yet they find it a weariness. The third sort are wicked, false-hearted men, who dream and declare that they are perfect and need no ordinances, and make a mock of them. The fourth are those who are enlightened with the True Light, who do not practise these things for reward, for they neither look nor desire to get anything thereby, but all that they do is from love alone. And these are not so anxious and eager to accomplish much and with all speed as the second sort, but rather seek to do things in peace and good leisure; and if some not weighty matter be neglected, they do not therefore think themselves lost, for they know very well that order and fitness are better than disorder, and therefore they choose to walk orderly, yet know at the same time that their salvation hangeth not thereon. Therefore they are not in so great anxiety as the others. These men are judged and blamed by both the other parties, for the hirelings say that they neglect their duties and accuse them of being unrighteous, and the like; and the others (that is, the Free Spirits44) hold them in derision, and say that they cleave unto weak and beggarly elements, and the like.

(3) (And so may it be), O Ahura! Let the man who is the best toward the righteous saint, whether lord's kinsman , or as village labourer, with the allied peer (of the master), having light, and endowed with energy for the cattle (a Ratu such as Ahura sought to satisfy their wail), let such an one be (for us) in the work-field of the Righteous Order, in the pastures of Thy Good Mind .

(42) O ye Compassionate Ones, defend (so-and-so) who is defenseless. Protect him who is unprotected. Be his forces and his kinsmen. Protect [him] from the great gloom of the Bardo. Turn him from the red [or storm] wind of Karma. Turn him from the great awe and terror of the Lords of Death. Save him from the long narrow passage-way of the Bardo.

(2) And moreover, considering your own duty, you should not waver, for, there is nothing higher for a Kshatriya than a righteous war.

(14) But we desire to learn about the man who is always and in all things righteous; who, neither dreading the penalty proceeding from the law, nor fearing to entertain hatred of evil in the case of those who live with him and who prosecute the injured, nor dreading danger at the hands of those who do wrong, remains righteous. For he who, on account of these considerations, abstains from anything wrong, is not voluntarily kind, but is good from fear.