15 May 2025 Bhagavad Gita 5.16 — What Self-Knowledge Does Even the learned are confused about what action (karma) does. Action cannot destroy ignorance — only knowledge can. Just as darkness yields only to light, ignorance of the Self dissolves only in Self-Knowledge (jnana). Rituals, worship, and pilgrimages are actions — they purify, but they don’t liberate. Suffering persists until we know who we truly are. Krishna urges us to go beyond doing, into knowing. When we understand the Self — ever-free, ever-full — action loses its grip, and confusion ends.