Gita 05.06 – Renunciation without yogic connection is distressing

Bhagavad Gita 5.6 Bhagavad Gita 5.6 is Sanyasa Mahabaho Sanyasa or Arjuna to certainly Mahabaho Arjuna you are a very powerful warrior this Sanyasa Dukham Aaptum Ayogataha and it will give only misery if it is done Ayogataha without the practice of yoga Yogayukto on the other hand if one is engaged in the practice of yoga then Yogayukto Munir Brahma the Muni who is practicing yoga Brahma is the spiritual truth without much time soon this person will attain so Krishna is now in one sense here giving reiterating the assertion that he made in 5.2 in 5.2 he has said that both paths are good he has stated that both the paths are good both lead to the liberation but he says among them the path of Karma Yoga is better so now till now from after making that assertion in verse 2 3,4,5 Krishna has been telling how Nishreyasakarabha applies how both lead to Nishreyas that both ultimately have the same purpose despite their different processes both are ultimately meant for liberation now after telling that after explaining that commonality now Krishna is telling the difference why he gives a preference for Karma Yoga because he says the path of renunciation is difficult, it is distressing it is demanding and distressing Sanyasas tu maha baho, the path of Sanyas, O Mahabaho, O powerful Arjuna, Dukham ab tum ayogataham it will give dukkha for one who is ayogataham one who is not practicing yoga now why is that that is because for us we are always we are inherently pleasure seeking the Atma is Satchitananda and because Ananda is a part of the constitutional fabric of the Atma so the soul will seek for pleasure somewhere or the other and if it doesn't get pleasure in at the spiritual level it will seek pleasure in the material level and when the soul gives up pleasure at the material level and is not able to connect with the spiritual level then the soul gets misery because it is unnatural to stay without pleasure so in the path of Sankhya one has to where one takes Sanyas, at that time there is the disconnection from matter and therefore there is the loss of material pleasure.

Now material pleasure does definitely lead to misery but still there is some pleasure and that gives some level of satisfaction no matter how expensive it is karmically but some satisfaction is there. On the other hand when one goes beyond material pleasure or rather when one renounces material pleasure but one is not yet Ayogataha, that means one is not yet connected with the spiritual reality with the spiritual truth one has not yet realized one's spiritual nature so at that time one is the seeker is getting neither material pleasure nor spiritual pleasure and that is distressing that loss of happiness from both sides is distressing and further the path of inaction is unnatural Krishna has talked about this earlier when in 3.5 he stated that that actually we cannot live without action and those who try to do that they have to labor enormously and it is difficult Krishna will reiterate this point again in the 12th chapter when the impersonal and personal paths are contrasted and there he states in 12.5 that it is klesha to emphasize this point Krishna uses the word klesha twice in this verse these people get klesha who are these people they are attached to the impersonal and the relationship between that verse and this verse is that those who are attached to the impersonal they are also inactive because they think that the ultimate reality has no activity in it and because it is impersonal it is just oneness there is no activity in it and so they strive for inactivity and that inactivity is unnatural and so for the embodied progress on the impersonal path is it is very distressing so same way Krishna is telling over here that those who become disconnected from matter by taking sanyas but those who are not yet connected with spirit they are ayogatah then for them it is a very demanding thing they are not experiencing spiritual happiness they have given up material happiness and they are trying to do something unnatural that is giving up material activity without being able to experience spiritual activity in contrast with such people yogayukto muner brahma Krishna says that yogayukto those who are engaged in yoga who is harmonized in yoga this yogayukto contrasts with the word that just came before that in the previous line that is in 5.6b last word was ayogatah so here it is yogayukto those who are engaged in yoga harmonized in yoga connected through yoga munir those who are muni is the word referred to seeker so it is interesting normally the word muni is used for those who have renounced the world and those who are engaged in meditation but Krishna uses the word for muni to refer to those who are yogayukta that means those who are active so it is not that a sage has to give up activity the characteristic of sage is not particular kind of action that is inaction but a particular kind of vision that is enlightened vision so if one has an enlightened vision then that person is a sage muni yogayukto munir brahma so muni is essentially a person who is contemplative who is thoughtful so Krishna uses the word muni also to indicate the point that it is not that only those who give up action are contemplative and even those who may be doing action if they are karma yogis then they are also contemplative they are thoughtful because they understand the nature of reality they are aware of their own spiritual identity even when they are engaged in the material world they are thoughtful they are not thoughtless pursuing whatever pleasures the material world tempts them with rather they are thoughtful and they are discerningly pursuing spiritual realization even while living in the material world and acting in the material world so munir brahma so this kind of muni is a thoughtful people what happens to them brahma achirena dhikachati they attain brahma achirena without much time why is that because working acting is much more natural for us than is not acting staying inactive so Krishna is telling here because these yogis act and through their action not only is it natural but it is also bringing them some spiritual connection because they are yoga yukta so now generally we use the word higher taste with bhakti and it's true bhakti gives not just the higher taste but the highest taste and that comes when we taste Krishna when we experience Krishna by the practices of bhakti then we experience the supreme higher taste the highest taste but even when one practices other forms of yoga for example one practices karma yoga even if at that time one has not yet conceived Krishna properly and one is not pursuing Krishna even if one is pursuing atma and is trying to come to the spiritual level the brahman level then even in that there is happiness and if one's consciousness is clear then one perceives the spiritual happiness atleast to some extent the muni the seeker perceives the atleast partially the ananda that is innate to this atma which is satchitananda so in the as well as in the Upanishads the hierarchy of happiness is given and it is clearly stated that as compared to the the earthly happiness is much higher but higher than the heavenly happiness is the brahma sukha the happiness of spiritual realisation of brahman realisation and beyond the brahmananda is bhakti ananda it's a oceanic happiness of devotion so the point for us is Krishna has not yet introduced bhakti and bhakti ananda is not relevant but for us here the point that brahmananda the happiness of realising one's spiritual nature even if not completely but atleast understanding that I am the atma that also gives some higher satisfaction and in that way one is steadily progressive it doesn't take much time now this not taking much time is a matter of relativity it is not that it happens overnight it can take many lifetimes but still the point is it is much the time required is much lesser than the time required in the practice of jnana yoga because in the practice of karma yoga one is doing natural and acting naturally and therefore personally one does not feel that things are taking so much time when we are bored and we don't have anything interesting to do at that time time seems to slow down and seems to be just like crawling like a snail and when we are doing something which we relish then time seems to fly away like a rocket so like that, that is one level of understanding achirena is relativity of perception but along with that especially when one practices bhakti then one gets tremendous boost by Krishna's mercy because Krishna uses omnipotence to draw us towards him and then we can attain spiritual realisation very swiftly even in the path of when one is practicing karma yoga at that time also because one is doing natural one is being in one's natural state is acting, is not trying to be inactive and because a person is connecting with spiritual reality at some level and therefore getting some happiness so that person moves swiftly, not laboriously as happens in the path of impersonal inactive renunciation so therefore achirena di gacchati attain brahman realisation perfection quickly thank you.