Bhagavatgita adetailed study-chapter5-yoga of renunciation

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10.brahmaNyaaDhaaya

karmaaNi

sangam thyakthvaa kari othi yaH

lipyathe na sa paapena

padhmapathram iva ambhasaa

 

One

who acts without attachment

reposing all actions in Brahman, is not tainted by sin like the lotus

leaf by water.

 

The

karma yogi acts without desire and attachment and offers all his actions to the

Lord. He considers all the actions as the interaction between the gunas inside

and gunas outside. Hence the result of actions

producing sin or merit do not taint him and he remains like the lotus

leaf which is not wetted by water on it.

 

There

may arise question that when the

karmayogi acts withour desire and attachment naturally he would not do anything

that may result in sin. Hence why should

it be said that sin will accrue to him?

 

The

Lord says in the 18th chapter, `sarvaarambha hi dhosheNa Dhoomena agniH iva aavrthaa,' meaning

that all actions are covered with defects as the fire with smoke. It is possible to commit sin inadvertently causing

harm to other beings in course of even daily actions like the imperceptible

creatures may be killed by cooking , walking and other actions. Even those will

not result in sin when one has renounced the agency of action.

 

The

word Brahman here is taken to mean Brahman or Narayana because all the actions

are done as an offering in the spirit of yajna.

Ramanuja however explains the word as prkrthi as mentioned in the fourteenth

chapter as `mama yonih mahath brahma,', meaning that the prakrthi is the

womb into which the Lord puts the seed of creation. The word aaDhaaya

means reposing and as Brahman has no

actions all the actions belong to prakrthi. But the word has also another

meaning to direct towards and this meaning has been accepted by Sankara and

others according to which all actions of a karmayogi are directed towards

Brahman as an offering and hence the word Brahman denotes only the supreme

reality.

 

11.

kaayena manasaa buddhyaa kevalaih indhriyaiH api

yognaH

karma kurvanthi sangam thyakthvaa aathma SudDhaye

 

The

karmayogis act with their body, mind and intellect, giving up attachment for

the purification of themselves.

 

12.

yukthaH karmaphalam thyakthvaa Saanthim aapnothi

naishtikeem

ayukthaH kaamakaareNa phale sakthaH

nibaDhyathe

 

The

karmayogi giving up the attachment for the fruit of action attains lasting

peace. But the one who is not attained yoga becomes attached to the fruit of

action, motivated by desire, gets bound by

his actions.2

 

Even a non-knower of truth, that is,

brahmajnana, if he acts with an attitude of surrender, without

attachment, is not stained by karma like a lotus leaf by water

because such yogis, with detachment, work for self purification, and

attain liberation whereas the others who are attached to the results of

action get bound by them.

 

13.

sarvakarmaaNi manasaa sannyasya aasthe sukham vaSee

navadhvaare

pure dhehee naivakurvan na

kaarayan

 

But

one who has controlled himself, renounces all actions mentally and remains

happy in his body as in a town which has

nine gates, not doing anything nor causing any action to be done.

 

 

But the man of wisdom , having

renounced all actions by discriminative intelligence, perceiving action as

inaction sits in the body as a monarch inside a citadel with nine gates, the

nine openings of the body through which all experience is gained. The self is

the Lord of the castle with which the sage identifies himself and hence

he does no work nor he causes any work to be done, meaning, there is no direct nor causative agency as the

Self is immutable.