Gita 05.02 – The path that takes us away from bondage fastest is the best

Attainment of eternal existence. Keep that in mind and fight wholeheartedly. Thank you.

Krishna is now answering the question which Arjuna has raised in the previous verse. Arjuna asked, Krishna you are recommended for, you have praised karma sannyasa and then you have praised yoga. Please tell me one thing which I should do, which is the shreya.

So, Krishna answers here, sannyasa karma yogasya, sannyasa is the path of enunciation, karma yogasya, that is the path of doing karma yoga, of action. Nishreyasakaraubhav, both of them are nishreyas, both of them lead to long-term good. Tayostu karma sannyasa, among these two, karma sannyasa, as compared to karma sannyasa, karma yoga vishishyate, karma yoga is better.

So, Krishna's answer here is that both are good, but karma yoga is better. Let's try to understand this more now, what exactly is Krishna saying here. Looking back at terminology, let's see, Krishna uses two terms here, sannyasa, karma yogasya, so he's talking about two things, nishreyasakaraubhav, both sannyasa and karma yoga are good, Krishna is saying, but among these two, so sannyasa and karma yoga are two paths.

Now, if you look at what the usage that Arjuna has used, he has used sannyasam karmanam, krishna, ponaryogam cha samsasi, so karma sannyasa and then yoga, that is the word which Arjuna has used over there. Krishna is using, Krishna is coupling the word karma with not sannyasa, but with karma, whereas Arjuna has phrased the two alternatives as karma sannyasa and yoga. Krishna is phrasing the two alternatives first as sannyasa and karma yoga and then in his third and fourth line, he phrases two alternatives as tayostu karma sannyasa, karma yoga vishishyate, and then he phrases them more explicitly as karma sannyasa and karma yoga.

So, among these three terms that are used for the two concepts that are being discussed, Krishna makes it very clear what is being referred to in 5.2c and d. He states that he's talking about karma sannyasa and karma yoga. So, karma sannyasa is the activity of renouncing work and karma yoga is the activity of using work to connect with the absolute truth, of doing karma as a form of yoga. And Krishna, so the terms that Krishna uses are unambiguous and his message is also unambiguous.

As compared to karma sannyasa, as compared to renouncing work, karma yoga, doing work in a mood of yoga is much better. Vishishyate, vishishyate is superior, is better. Krishna has used the word vishishyate earlier also, in 3.7, when he compared the regulated householder with the show-bottle renunciate.

So, yas tvayindriyani manasa niyam yarbhate arjuna karme indriyai karma yogam asattvah sa vishishyate which a person is better. Who is better? One who yas tvayindriyani manasa, one who controls the senses with the mind and engages in regulated work as a householder, that is better. So, sa vishishyate means this is superior.

So, let's try to understand now, once the terms and the concepts are clear, let's try to understand the import of what Krishna is saying. He says both are good. Kanyasah karma yogascha nishreyasatara avubhav.

Both lead to nishreyasa, both lead to long-term good. What is the significance of saying that both lead to long-term good? In general, in this world, we are all attached to material things and because of the attachment to material things, we stay bound in material existence. So, from the point of view of our bondage in material existence, anything that enables us to come out of material existence is good.

So, if it is karma yoga, that is good and if it is karma sannyas, that is also good. It is not that either of them is necessarily bad. So, this is not a choice between good and bad that Arjuna has had.

We often have moral choices to make, where one option is moral and other is immoral. And then while making moral choices, what we need basically is moral strength. But beyond that, when we have to make choices like this, where it is not one thing is right and another thing is wrong, wrong in terms of being morally wrong.

But one thing is, so both are good, but one thing is better than the other. So, it's like a choice between good and better or good and best. So, Krishna is saying both are good.

Now, when he's saying both are good, is he contradicting what he himself said earlier when he said that those who renounce and then meditate on sense objects are hypocrites? No, Krishna is not talking. Krishna is talking about people who are serious purushumbhas and who authentically want to renounce. So, such people, he says they are because they have distanced themselves from material existence, they are situated in a renounced order and are trying to pursue the goals of the renounced order properly.

So, they are good practitioners. But here Krishna is talking about what is easier to practice and that he will reason it later. In 5.6, he will describe how sannyas is more difficult.

Without practice of yoga, without connection with the higher reality, the practice of sannyas will be distressing, too demanding and distressing. In contrast, you can say that one who practices yoga will rise smoothly to the higher reality. So, therefore, the point which Krishna is making here is that both are good.

In fact, anything that helps a person to come out of material bondage, material illusion is good. So, in the case of Arjuna, what is helping him come out most easily, most effectively will be Karma Yoga. And that's what Krishna will analyze.

So, the future verse is here. So, Arjuna had asked in his question sannyasam karmanam krishnapunaryogam yashreyatayorekam. Shreya is long term.

Nishreya is a similar term which also has with the prefix ni, there is shreya again. So, Krishna is saying both are shreya because the material world is filled with priya, short term. Short term material pleasures are there in this world.

But the spiritual realm is filled with long term. In the spiritual realm, when we move from the material to the spiritual, we go towards long term pleasures, eternal pleasure, eternal attainment. And both these paths move us towards the eternal realm.

In that sense, both are good. But because Karma Yoga is easier to practice, because Karma Yoga is natural, enabling us to do activity, which is natural for us. Therefore, Karma Yoga is better.