श्रीभगवान्
In plain words
The Blessed Lord said: In this world I taught of old a twofold discipline, sinless one—Jñāna-yoga for those of Sāṅkhya and Karma-yoga for the yogins.
Word for word
In this world a twofold steadfastness was taught of old by me, O sinless one: by the yoga of knowledge for the Sāṅkhyas, by the yoga of action for the yogins.
लोकेऽस्मिन् द्विविधा निष्ठा पुरा प्रोक्ता मयाऽनघज्ञानयोगेन साङ्ख्यानां कर्मयोगेन योगिनाम्
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
प्रश्नानुरूपमेव प्रतिवचनं श्रीभगवानुवाच —
लोके अस्मिन् शास्त्रार्थानुष्ठानाधिकृतानां त्रैवर्णिकानां द्विविधा द्विप्रकारा निष्ठा स्थितिः अनुष्ठेयतात्पर्यं पुरा पूर्वं सर्गादौ प्रजाः सृष्ट्वा तासाम् अभ्युदयनिःश्रेयसप्राप्तिसाधनं वेदार्थसम्प्रदायमाविष्कुर्वता प्रोक्ता मया सर्वज्ञेन ईश्वरेण हे अनघ अपाप । तत्र का सा द्विविधा निष्ठा इत्याह — तत्र ज्ञानयोगेन ज्ञानमेव योगः तेन साङ्ख्यानाम् आत्मानात्मविषयविवेकविज्ञानवतां ब्रह्मचर्याश्रमादेव कृतसंन्यासानां वेदान्तविज्ञानसुनिश्चितार्थानां परमहंसपरिव्राजकानां ब्रह्मण्येव अवस्थितानां निष्ठा प्रोक्ता । कर्मयोगेन कर्मैव योगः कर्मयोगः तेन कर्मयोगेन योगिनां कर्मिणां निष्ठा प्रोक्ता इत्यर्थः । यदि च एकेन पुरुषेण एकस्मै पुरुषार्थाय ज्ञानं कर्म च समुच्चित्य अनुष्ठेयं भगवता इष्टम् उक्तं वक्ष्यमाणं वा गीतासु वेदेषु चोक्तम् , कथमिह अर्जुनाय उपसन्नाय प्रियाय विशिष्टभिन्नपुरुषकर्तृके एव ज्ञानकर्मनिष्ठे ब्रूयात् ? यदि पुनः ‘अर्जुनः ज्ञानं कर्म च द्वयं श्रुत्वा स्वयमेवानुष्ठास्यति अन्येषां तु भिन्नपुरुषानुष्ठेयतां वक्ष्यामि इति’ मतं भगवतः कल्प्येत, तदा रागद्वेषवान् अप्रमाणभूतो भगवान् कल्पितः स्यात् । तच्चायुक्तम् । तस्मात् कयापि युक्त्या न समुच्चयो ज्ञानकर्मणोः ॥
यत् अर्जुनेन उक्तं कर्मणो ज्यायस्त्वं बुद्धेः, तच्च स्थितम् , अनिराकरणात् । तस्याश्च ज्ञाननिष्ठायाः संन्यासिनामेवानुष्ठेयत्वम् , भिन्नपुरुषानुष्ठेयत्ववचनात् । भगवतः एवमेव अनुमतमिति गम्यते ॥ ३ ॥
In plain words
The answer fits the question exactly. So Śrī Bhagavān said —
For everyone in this world entitled by scripture to a spiritual practice, a twofold path was laid down long ago, at the very dawn of creation — I created all beings, Kṛṣṇa says, and revealed alongside them the Veda's own teaching, the means to both worldly flourishing and the highest good — I did this as the all-knowing Lord, sinless one. So what is that twofold path? Here is the answer: 'by the discipline of knowledge' simply means knowledge itself is the path — and that path belongs to the Sāṅkhyas, those who have come to discriminate clearly between the Self and everything that isn't the Self, who renounced the world straight out of their student years, whose grasp of Vedānta has left no doubt in them, wandering monks of the highest order, settled in Brahman and nothing else. 'By the discipline of action' means action itself is the path — karma-yoga — and that belongs to the yogins, those still engaged in action. That's the whole of it. Now, suppose someone thought that one single person was meant to combine knowledge and action together, toward one single goal, and that the Lord had said so, or was about to, somewhere in this Gītā, or already had in the Vedas. If that were true, why would Kṛṣṇa speak to Arjuna — his own beloved disciple, right here — as though these two paths belonged to two entirely different kinds of people? And if someone tried to rescue that idea by imagining Kṛṣṇa meant, 'Arjuna will hear about both and practice both himself, but for everyone else I'll say they belong to different people' — then Kṛṣṇa would have to be pictured as playing favorites, driven by attachment and aversion like anyone else, and no longer a trustworthy authority at all. That simply will not do. So, by no reasoning whatsoever, can knowledge and action be combined into one practice.
What Arjuna said — that knowledge stands higher than action — still stands, because the Lord never overturned it. And that steadfastness in knowledge is the practice of renouncers alone, because his words assign the two disciplines to two different kinds of people. So this, exactly this, is what the Lord assents to.
Close to the Sanskrit
A reply conforming precisely to the question — that Śrī Bhagavān spoke —
In this world, for the members of the three castes who are entitled to perform what scripture prescribes, a twofold discipline — [i.e.] a state, an intent as to what is to be practiced — was declared of old, formerly, at the beginning of creation, having created creatures, [and] having revealed the traditional teaching of the meaning of the Veda, the means of attaining prosperity and the highest good for them — by me, the omniscient Lord, O sinless, faultless one. As to this, what is that twofold discipline? — [Kṛṣṇa] states: There, 'by the discipline of knowledge' [means]: knowledge itself is yoga; by that, for the Sāṅkhyas — those possessing discriminative knowledge of Self and non-Self, who have taken renunciation right from the stage of celibate studentship, whose understanding has been made certain through knowledge of Vedānta, the wandering mendicants of the highest order, established in Brahman alone — the discipline was declared. 'By the discipline of action' [means]: action itself is yoga, [i.e.] karma-yoga; by that karma-yoga, for the yogins, [i.e.] those [engaged] in action, the discipline was declared. Such is the meaning. And if, for a single person, for a single human goal, the combining of knowledge and action, as something to be practiced, had been intended by the Lord — stated, or about to be stated, in the Gītā, or [already] stated in the Vedas — then how, here, would he speak to Arjuna, who has approached him, who is dear to him, of the two disciplines of knowledge and action as though each had its own distinct agent? But if it were supposed that the Lord's intention was: 'Arjuna, having heard both knowledge and action, will himself practice both; but for others, I will teach that they are to be practiced by different persons' — then the Lord would have to be imagined as one possessed of attachment and aversion, and no [longer a reliable] authority. And that is untenable. Therefore, by no reasoning whatsoever, is there a combination of knowledge and action.
That which was said by Arjuna — the superiority of buddhi (knowledge) over action — that too stands, because of its non-refutation. And of that steadfastness in knowledge, the being-to-be-practised belongs to renouncers alone, because of the statement that the two are to be practised by different persons. That precisely this is the Lord's own assent is understood.