How God-Realization Is Attained

Excerpts from God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita
by Paramahansa Yogananda

Summary Of The Gita's Message
How God-Realization Is Attained

That individual gains uttermost perfection—the actionless state of realization through renunciation—who keeps his intellect ever detached from worldly ties and passions,* who is victorious in regaining his soul, and who is without desires.
— The Bhagavad Gita XVIII:50-53

* Asaktabuddhi: lit., "...who keeps his intellect ever detached." Buddhi, the discriminating faculty of the soul, when pure and undistorted by the influence of manas, the sense mind, is truth-revealing, drawing the consciousness to its native state in the true Self, the soul. See 1:1, page 5.

That devotee attains the "uttermost perfection" of his individualized incarnate status when he realizes his true Self, the soul, as being of the essence of God's transcendent consciousness, untouched by bodily experiences, even as the Lord is immutable beyond the activities He sends forth through Cosmic Nature. The way to liberation lies through this realization of the Self, by God-communion and by remaining in this God-aware state of the soul while performing dutiful actions. Any individual can reach this supreme actionless state by the renunciation of all fruits of actions: performing all dutiful acts without harboring in his heart any likes and dislikes, possessing no material desires, and feeling God, not the ego, as the Doer of all actions.

That yogi who is not attached to his own body or his family or the world, even though he joyously works for them with the sole desire of pleasing God; who is in full control of his mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi), ego (ahamkara), and heart (chitta); who is free from all desires for sense pleasures; and who works, yet renounces the fruits of actions, becomes free from the reincarnation-causing triple qualities of mortal and natural actions. The consciousness of such a yogi rests in the immutability of the eternal Spirit.