In the Bhagavad Gita, yoga is presented as a disciplined process that unites the individual self (ātman) with the supreme reality, spoken of as Brahman or Krishna, while enabling one to live in the world without bondage. It is not a single technique but a comprehensive spiritual orientation in which action, knowledge, meditation, and devotion mutually support one another. The Gita repeatedly emphasizes inner equanimity—samatva, evenness of mind in success and failure—as a defining mark of genuine yoga, and describes yoga as “skill in action,” meaning action performed in such a way that it does not generate further karmic entanglement. Through this disciplined way of living and seeing, the practitioner gradually becomes free from agitation amid pleasure and pain, gain and loss, honor and dishonor. The ultimate horizon of this process is liberation from the cycle of birth and death, together with the realization of one’s true nature as distinct from the changing body and mind yet related to, or united with, the Supreme.

The Gita’s teaching unfolds through several interwoven paths of yoga. Karma Yoga, the yoga of selfless action, calls for performing one’s rightful duty (svadharma) without attachment to results, offering the fruits of all actions to Krishna and accepting outcomes with equanimity. Such action, free from selfish craving, purifies the mind and transforms ordinary work into spiritual discipline, preparing the ground for deeper knowledge and devotion, and in its perfected form can itself lead to liberation. Jñāna Yoga, the yoga of knowledge, involves discriminating between the eternal Self and the transient field of body and mind, recognizing the impermanence of the material world and contemplating the Self as unborn and indestructible. This discernment, supported by ethical qualities such as humility and detachment, destroys ignorance and reveals the ātman as the practitioner’s true identity.

Alongside these, the Gita sets forth Dhyāna Yoga, the yoga of meditation, as a systematic training of attention and mind. The practitioner is instructed to sit in a steady posture in a clean, quiet place, to restrain the senses, and to fix the mind one-pointedly on the Self or on Krishna, gently bringing it back whenever it wanders. Such disciplined meditation leads to inner stillness, direct experiential knowledge, and a stable peace in which the Self is clearly apprehended. Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of devotion, permeates and crowns all the others: it consists in loving surrender to Krishna through constant remembrance, worship, prayer, and the offering of all activities to Him. By cultivating unwavering love, faith, and the qualities of a true devotee—non-harming, freedom from ego, patience, contentment—one’s ego-centeredness is dissolved, and Krishna is said to draw such a devotee swiftly beyond evil and rebirth into abiding union.

Taken together, these paths form a single, integrated vision of spiritual practice. The Gita portrays the ideal practitioner as one who acts selflessly in accordance with duty, grounded in right understanding, steadied by meditation, and suffused with devotion to the divine. Through gradual purification of consciousness, detachment from material desires, and cultivation of equanimity, such a person realizes an eternal relationship with Krishna and attains union with the Supreme Reality. The fruit of this yoga is not escape from life’s responsibilities but the capacity to live and act as an instrument of the divine will, established in wisdom, peace, and freedom from the compulsions of karma and rebirth.