Bhagavatgita a detailed study chapter5-yoga of renunciation

February 14, 2009

6. sannyaasasthu mahaabaaho dhuhkham aapthum ayogathaH

yogayuktho muniH brahma na chireNa aDhigacChathi

Renunciation is difficult to attain for one who has not followed karmayoga. The sage who is established in karmayoga is able to realize Brahman soon.

Krishna here explains why he extolled Karmayoga as being the better of the two. Renunciation is very difficult to win without Karmayoga, which consists in dedicating the works to God without craving for the result. This in turn brings detachment. After this on contemplating on Brahman one attains it easily.

Even though both, namely, karma yoga and jnanayoga are said to lead to the same goal, the former is easier than the latter. First when a man starts thinking about himself as being something other than body, mind and intellect, the quest for the self begins.

He may get the knowledge that he is only the self which is immutable and eternal from the study of scriptures and also about his inner self or the real self ,that is Brahman. But due to his past karma his mind is full of desire, anger etc. Hence the mind should be cleansed of these first, through karmayoga, which makes him give up desire and hatred by dedicating all his karma and the results of karma to the Lord and sheds the sense of agency, when he is no more affected by his actions. Then only he is fit for the contemplation of Brahman.

On the other hand if he starts jananyoga by contemplation and giving up all actions, his desire and ego which have not been got rid of, will raise their ugly heads and drag him away from his goal. The sage Visvamithra was an excellent example of this. He was a kshathriya and his pride and anger pulled him away for his goal until he conquered them.

The natural doubt that may arise is that there are some who renounced the world relinquishing all their karma like Ramakrishna or Ramana and they become realized masters without pursuing karmamarga. But we see only their present embodiment which is but a continuation of several lives, this being the last. This point is elucidated by Krishna Himself in the next chapter of the Gita