Bg 6.1
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ
sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ
Bg 6.2
yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhur yogaṁ taṁ viddhi pāṇḍava
na hy asannyasta-saṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana
Translation
The Blessed Lord said: 1. He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits-of-actions --- he is a SAMNYASIN and a YOGIN ; not he who is (has renounced) without fire and without action.
2. O Pandava, please know YOGA to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a YOGI who has not renounced thoughts.
Commentary
Arjuna's plan, in his own words in the first chapter, was to escape from the battlefield in order to live the Samnyasa-life. He did not know that a truly selfless worker is the greatest Samnyasi, for, without renunciation, his action would become, at best, only a mischievous meddling with the harmony of the Universe.
To escape from the buzz of life in our present state of unpreparedness into the quiet atmosphere of the banks of the Ganges, is only the fall of an average good man to the level of the insentient stone in the very Ganges. At the close of this verse, Krishna laughs at Arjuna's sad misconceptions. There is no bitterness in the irony of the Lord. Soon we shall find that Arjuna also comes to laugh at his own misunderstandings.
The whole chapter is so fully and entirely dedicated to expounding the technique of cultivation, direction and application of the inner forces of thoughts and feelings, that it is very appropriate for Krishna to indicate the greater importance of revolutionising our inner motives and mental attitudes before we enter the path of spirituality.
AS AN ELUCIDATING ANNOTATION FOR THE QUIBBLE WHICH THE LORD HAD DECLARED IN THE STANZA, WE HAVE HIS ADDED EXPLANATIONS IN THE FOLLOWING, WHICH SHOW HOW SAMNYASA ITSELF IS YOGA:
Krishna is repeating the same idea, lest Arjuna should overlook the fact that what they call Samnyasa, the "renunciation of agency," is itself Yoga, the "renunciation of the fruits-of-action." Samnyasa is the state reached through Yoga, the practice; and the spiritual practice of Yoga cannot even be thought of without the spirit of Samnyasa in the bosom. The two are the obverse and the reverse of the same coin of spiritual perfection!
It is but natural that the intellectually independent thinker in Arjuna should, at this juncture, ask the question "Why?" with raised brows, seeing which, the Charioteer implicitly gives the logical reasons behind his seemingly outrageous and daring conclusion. The Lord explains that, never can one become established in the practices for one's own cultural-rehabilitation unless one has learnt the art of renouncing all Sankalpas.
Man cannot ordinarily remain without imagining and constantly creating, in his exuberant fancy. And in his imagination he invariably tries to pull down the beautiful veil thrown over the face of the future. Ripping open this veil over the unknown, everyone of us, on all occasions, in our imaginations, fix for ourselves a goal to be fulfilled by us in the near future. Having fixed up the temporary goal, our mind plans and creates a method of achieving that hazy goal. But ere we execute our plans and enter into the field of effort to carve out success for ourselves, the never-tiring, ever-active power of imagination in us would already have wiped clean the goal fixed earlier, and have rewritten a modified destination to be gained in the future.
By the time we prepare ourselves mentally and start executing our ideas in life, our mischievous fancy would again have wiped the distant goal clean. Thus each time the goal remains only so long as we have not started our pilgrimage to it; and the moment we start the pilgrimage, the goal fades away from our vision!
In short, when we have got a goal we have not yet started acting, and the moment we start the strife, we seem to have no goal to reach. The subtle force in our inner composition which unconsciously creates this lunatic temperament in us is called the unbridled Sankalpa Shakti.
We need no help from any great commentators to understand that no achievement, either without or within us, can be gained so long as we have not pursued, arrested, and finally destroyed this dangerous inner saboteur called 'Sankalpa.'
To show that there is no compromise in this, Bhagawan is using a very positive term that none (kashchana) can ever reach any progress on the path of self-redemption without acquiring a capacity to renounce this self-poisoning Sankalpa-disturbance.
KARMA YOGA, PRACTISED WITHOUT REGARD TO THE FRUIT OF ACTION FORMS AN EXTERNAL AID (BAHIRANGA SADHANA) TO DHYANA YOGA. THE LORD NOW PROCEEDS TO SHOW HOW KARMA YOGA IS A MEANS TO BETTER AND GREATER MEDITATION.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
anāśritaḥ karma-phalaṁ kāryaṁ karma karoti yaḥ
sa sannyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ
Bg 6.2
yaṁ sannyāsam iti prāhur yogaṁ taṁ viddhi pāṇḍava
na hy asannyasta-saṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana
Translation
The Blessed Lord said: 1. He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits-of-actions --- he is a SAMNYASIN and a YOGIN ; not he who is (has renounced) without fire and without action.
2. O Pandava, please know YOGA to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a YOGI who has not renounced thoughts.
Commentary
Arjuna's plan, in his own words in the first chapter, was to escape from the battlefield in order to live the Samnyasa-life. He did not know that a truly selfless worker is the greatest Samnyasi, for, without renunciation, his action would become, at best, only a mischievous meddling with the harmony of the Universe.
To escape from the buzz of life in our present state of unpreparedness into the quiet atmosphere of the banks of the Ganges, is only the fall of an average good man to the level of the insentient stone in the very Ganges. At the close of this verse, Krishna laughs at Arjuna's sad misconceptions. There is no bitterness in the irony of the Lord. Soon we shall find that Arjuna also comes to laugh at his own misunderstandings.
The whole chapter is so fully and entirely dedicated to expounding the technique of cultivation, direction and application of the inner forces of thoughts and feelings, that it is very appropriate for Krishna to indicate the greater importance of revolutionising our inner motives and mental attitudes before we enter the path of spirituality.
AS AN ELUCIDATING ANNOTATION FOR THE QUIBBLE WHICH THE LORD HAD DECLARED IN THE STANZA, WE HAVE HIS ADDED EXPLANATIONS IN THE FOLLOWING, WHICH SHOW HOW SAMNYASA ITSELF IS YOGA:
It is but natural that the intellectually independent thinker in Arjuna should, at this juncture, ask the question "Why?" with raised brows, seeing which, the Charioteer implicitly gives the logical reasons behind his seemingly outrageous and daring conclusion. The Lord explains that, never can one become established in the practices for one's own cultural-rehabilitation unless one has learnt the art of renouncing all Sankalpas.
Man cannot ordinarily remain without imagining and constantly creating, in his exuberant fancy. And in his imagination he invariably tries to pull down the beautiful veil thrown over the face of the future. Ripping open this veil over the unknown, everyone of us, on all occasions, in our imaginations, fix for ourselves a goal to be fulfilled by us in the near future. Having fixed up the temporary goal, our mind plans and creates a method of achieving that hazy goal. But ere we execute our plans and enter into the field of effort to carve out success for ourselves, the never-tiring, ever-active power of imagination in us would already have wiped clean the goal fixed earlier, and have rewritten a modified destination to be gained in the future.
By the time we prepare ourselves mentally and start executing our ideas in life, our mischievous fancy would again have wiped the distant goal clean. Thus each time the goal remains only so long as we have not started our pilgrimage to it; and the moment we start the pilgrimage, the goal fades away from our vision!
In short, when we have got a goal we have not yet started acting, and the moment we start the strife, we seem to have no goal to reach. The subtle force in our inner composition which unconsciously creates this lunatic temperament in us is called the unbridled Sankalpa Shakti.
We need no help from any great commentators to understand that no achievement, either without or within us, can be gained so long as we have not pursued, arrested, and finally destroyed this dangerous inner saboteur called 'Sankalpa.'
To show that there is no compromise in this, Bhagawan is using a very positive term that none (kashchana) can ever reach any progress on the path of self-redemption without acquiring a capacity to renounce this self-poisoning Sankalpa-disturbance.
KARMA YOGA, PRACTISED WITHOUT REGARD TO THE FRUIT OF ACTION FORMS AN EXTERNAL AID (BAHIRANGA SADHANA) TO DHYANA YOGA. THE LORD NOW PROCEEDS TO SHOW HOW KARMA YOGA IS A MEANS TO BETTER AND GREATER MEDITATION.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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