Bhagavatgita a detailed study-chapter2-slokas 54 to56

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Bhagavatgita detailed study-Chapter6-dhyanayoga

 

 

1. anaaSrithaH karamphalam kaaryam karma karothi yaH

 

sa sanyaasee cha yogee cha na niragniH na cha akriyah

 

One who performs the actions that have to be done without attachment to the fruit of action , he alone is the sannyasi and also a yogi and not the one who simply gives up the ritual of fire or action.

 

Sannyasi is the one who follows the path of knowledge and the yogi here means karmayogi who follows the path of action. For a sannyasi there are no rituals and no obligatory karma. But sannyasa means mental renunciation of the worldly desires and not physical giving up of activities while mentally dwelling upon them in which case he will be a pseudo sannyasi as Krishna Himself will elaborate in a later chapter.

 

On the other hand the one who does all his actions without attachment to the fruit and giving up the sense of agency, that is, a karmayogi, is both a yogi and a sannyasi as sannyasa consists in giving up attachment and yoga is giving up the sense of agency.

 

2. yam sannyaasam ithi praahuH yogam tham vidDhi paandava

 

na hi asannyastha sankalpah yogee bhavathi kaScnana

 

Hence what is commonly know as sannyasa is also the yoga. For one who has mentally not renounced the wishful thinking, there can be no yoga.

 

Sankalpa is the thoughts that propel the action. A karmayogi who has given up the sense of agency has no desire-motivated actions and all he does is an offering to the Lord. Hence there is no sankalpa which creates the feeling `I am doing.' When there is sankalpa, the will to act because of desire for fruit, it brings vikalpa or misconception due to ego-centric desires. This is the maya, called chitthavrtthi jaala. The net made up of the thread of thoughts that bind the man.

 

Karmayoga is normally prescribed to the householder who has to discharge his duties which are obligatory in his stage of life. But by the same process he can scale the height of the yoga of meditation. The karma done without attachment giving up the fruit therein purifies the mind preparing him for the practice of dhyanayoga, Yoga of meditation. He is commended by Krishna as being the yogi and a sanyasi at the same time. Renunciation , sannyaasa, means giving up and he who does it is a sannyaasi. Yoga is the concentration of mind and he who has it is a yogi. So by merely giving up rituals and obligatory duties does not make one a sannyasi or an a yogi. The rejection of the agency , the feeling that `I am the doer' is common to both yoga and sannyasa. Hence Krishna says that without mental renunciation yoga is not possible.