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What the Gītā says about liberation

Freedom in the Gītā is not an exit. It is a standing still inside everything that moves. Arjuna wants to leave the battlefield; Krishna does not offer him departure. He offers something harder — to act fully and be bound by none of it. Liberation here is not a place you reach after death, though the text says that too. It is a knot that comes undone while you are still breathing. The wise, Krishna says, slip the cord of consequence and find a peace that was already there, underneath the noise. You do not earn it the way you earn a wage. You stop doing the thing that keeps it hidden. These verses walk from the first hint of that freedom to its fullest expression.

Verses

2.15
The one whom cold and heat, pain and pleasure cannot shake — is ready for what never dies.
The one whom pleasure and pain cannot shake is ready for what does not die
2.51
Giving up the fruits of action, the wise slip the knot of rebirth and reach the place beyond sorrow.
Giving up the fruit of action, the wise slip the knot of rebirth entirely
2.72
The state of the eternal — reach it and delusion ends. Hold it even at death, and be free.
The eternal ground described — reach it at death and become the deathless
5.24
The one whose joy, whose rest, whose light are all within — becomes the eternal, and enters its freedom.
Joy, rest, and light all within — the self becomes the eternal from inside out
5.26
For those free of craving and anger, minds ruled, self known — that freedom lies close on every side.
Knots undone, doubts cut, glad in every creature's good — freedom is nearby
6.15
Practicing so, always, the mind reined in, the yogi finds the peace that ends in me — the highest freedom.
The practising yogi finds a peace that ends in Krishna — the highest freedom
8.16
Every world, even the Creator's, turns and returns. But reach me, and there is no returning.
Every world turns and returns, but reaching Krishna means no more returning
14.20
Cross these three strands that come with the body, and — freed from birth, death, age, and sorrow — taste the deathless.
Cross the three strands that bind the body and taste the deathless while still alive
15.5
Pride and delusion gone, clinging conquered, at home in the self, cravings stilled, beyond pleasure and pain — they arrive, clear-eyed.
No pride, no delusion, desires stilled — the unconfused reach the imperishable
18.53
Ego, force, arrogance, craving, anger, grasping — all dropped; nothing 'mine'; at peace — ready for the eternal.
Ego, force, craving, anger — all dropped; nothing mine; ready for the eternal
18.66
Let go of every rule you cling to. Come to me — I will carry you. Do not grieve.
The final word: let go of every rule and come to me — liberation as surrender