Gita 06.01 – Renunciation means to give up the shelter of work’s fruits

Live in the best possible way in this world, in his service. Thank you. This is the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which is generally called Dhyan Yoga.

Krishna starts with describing, अनाश्रितः कर्मपलम् Without taking shelter of the fruits of work, कार्यं कर्मकरोतियह Those who do their work, सन्यासियोगीज This person is both a sanyasi and a yogi. And not one ननिरगनिर्णचाक्रियः Not one who lights no fire and does no work. So here, Krishna starts with quite a resonant statement.

It's like a bang. Krishna is using to emphasize that one should not give up action. It's significant that in this chapter later, Krishna will indeed talk about going out in the forest and giving up action.

But that is a later stage. At this stage, Krishna is advocating don't give up action. He is stating act according to your nature and do your prescribed good.

And he is going so far as to call such a person as a sanyasi. Krishna has already called the person who does work as a yogi. That nomenclature he has used right from 2.39 itself.

Where first time when he introduced the word yoga, it was in एशा ते अभीता सांके बुद्धिर योगे तो इमाम शुड़ों So how buddhi can be applied in the realm of yoga I'll explain to you now. How you can act and yoga is an action. In general, the Bhagavad Gita has used the word yoga to refer to action.

Now sanyas is generally used to refer to renunciation of action. But Krishna has introduced in the 5th chapter, 3rd verse the term निथ्यसन्यासी where he said that a person So know such a person to be निथ्यसन्यासी. Who is that person? One who is renounced, hankering, who is renounced hankering and lamenting or resenting.

And such a person is a person free from duality who will will happily become liberated. So there the person who is doing action is called as a sanyasi. And now here again Krishna is repeating the same point by stating that the person who does action, the person who acts is a sanyasi.

Same person is called sanyasi also and a yogi also. sanyasi, yogi. Who is that person? One who works.

And how does this person work? अनाशितः अनाशितः, कर्मःफलः So कर्मःफलः is the fruit of work. Now what does it mean to take shelter of the fruit of work? Now we use the word shelter. For example, if there is a rain, sudden rain then we may find shelter under the roof of some building or in a cottage or if nothing is there under a tree if we are in a forested area.

So shelter is that which offers some relief, some protection. Now all of us take shelter of something or the other. So अनाशितः कर्मःफलः refers to the fruit of work which is attained by it refers to making the fruit of work as the source of relief as the shelter basically as it is said over here.

Now all of us when we are working, when we are striving, work is rarely comfortable. It is usually strenuous and often we need some motivation to continue on working. So at that time we may take shelter of the fruit of the work and we will think that yes, it is for this fruit that I am doing.

Yes, it is for the fruit. But the fruit is for a higher purpose. A devotee may also dream of doing something wonderful but that devotee is not aiming just to do the wonderful thing.

The devotees want to do wonderful thing for Krishna. So they want to deepen their shelter of Krishna through the service that they are doing. But materialistic people just want to do a wonderful thing and therein gain shelter.

They gain shelter in their past achievements and they gain shelter from the challenges of the present by dreaming of future achievements. Such work no matter how glamorized it may be in today's world it is binding. And Krishna is saying don't work like this.

Anashita Karyam karma karotiya Karyam means that which is ordinary. So there is an alliteration of the K sound over here. Karyam karma karotiya and that sound also is alliterated.

And then niragni nachakriyaha So na niragni na ni na. So na na sound is also. Anashita karma phalam.

So this is a word which is quite poetic in terms of having poetic attributes and it is quite emphatic in terms of its philosophical message which is clearly a call to resist the temptation to equate renunciation with inaction. So Krishna is saying that person who is actually engaged in action but with detachment, without taking shelter of the fruit of work that person is actually yogi and that person is an actual sannyasi.