BhG 3.3

The Paths of Knowledge and Action.
The Blessed Lord gives the following reply, which is in conformity with the question:

The Blessed Lord said:
In this world a twofold path was taught by Me at first, O sinless one;
that of the Sankhyas by devotion to knowledge,
and that of the Yogins by devotion to action.

In this world – with reference to the people of the three castes, for whom alone are intended the teachings of the sastra (the Scripture), – a twofold niṣthā or path of devotion was taught by Me, the Omniscient Lord, when at first, at the beginning of creation, I created people and revived the tradition of the Vedic doctrine for teaching them the means of attaining worldly prosperity and Bliss.

What was that twofold path of devotion? – One of them was jñāna-yoga, the devotion of knowledge – knowledge itself being yoga – suited to the Sankhyas, to those who possessed a clear knowledge of the Self and the not-Self, who renounced the world from the Brahmacharya (the first holy order or asrama), who determined the nature of things in the light of the Vedantic wisdom, who belonged to the highest class of samnyasins known as the Paramahawsas, whose thoughts ever dwelt on Brahman only.

The other was karma-yoga, the devotion of action, – action itself being Yoga or devotion, – suited to yogins, to karmins, to those who were inclined to action.

If it had already been taught or is going to be taught by the Lord in the Gita – and if it had been taught in the Vedas as well – that both knowledge and action should be conjoined in one and the same person as a means to one and the same end, how might the Lord teach Arjuna, who approached Him as a beloved pupil, that the two paths of knowledge and action were respectively intended for two distinct classes of aspirants?

If, on the other hand, we suppose, that the Lord meant that Arjuna, after hearing Him teach knowledge and action, would devote himself, of his own accord, to both of them simultaneously conjoined, but that to others He would teach that the two paths were intended for two distinct classes of aspirants, then it would be tantamount to saying that the Lord is subject to love and hatred and that therefore He is no authority (in such matters): which is absurd. Wherefore by no argument can a conjunction of knowledge and action be proved.

Karma-Yoga leads to freedom from action. The superiority of knowledge to action, referred to by Arjuna (3.1), must be true, because there is no denial of it. And it must also be true that the path of knowledge is intended for samnyasins only. Since it has been stated that the two paths are intended for two distinct classes of aspirants, such is evidently the opinion of the Lord.