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               Chapter 5-Yoga of renunciation

 

 

Arjuna uvaacha

 

Sannyaasam karmaNaam KrishNa  punaH yogam cha Samsasi

 

Yath SreyaH ethayoH ekam thath me broohi suniSchayam

 

Arjuna said,

 

Krishna, you praised the acquirement of jnana which leads to renunciation of action and also you praise  karmayoga subsequently. Tell me which of the two are conducive to my progress towards the highest goal.

 

Krishna has detailed about karmayoga in the chapters 3 and 4 and hence Arjuna has no confusion regarding what is karma yoga. So he is not repeating the question he asked in the beginning of the third chapter. His doubt now is that while Krishna elucidated on karmayoga he also spoke about acquiring the jnana that, all is nothing but Brahman and advised Arjuna to approach a guru to acquire jnana. This made Arjuna wonder whether jnana is better than karma. Hence Krishna starts distinguishing between the two.

 

Sree bhagavaan uvacha

 

Sannyaasam karmayogaH cha niSSreyasakarou ubhou

 

thayoH tu karmasannyaasaath karmayogo viSishyathe

 

The Lord spoke,

 

Renunciation and karmayoga are both the means  to achieve the goal of realization. But of the two, karmayoga is superior to renunciation of action.

 

 Arjuna now wants to know which of the two disciplines, sannyasa , renunciation or karmayoga, performance of work without attachment is more beneficial for him. Here Krishna, the supreme physician starts prescribing the medicine suited to the patient and says that though both sannyasa and karma yoga are equally effective, Karmayoga is to be preferred, implying that in his case Arjuna needs only karmayoga.

The word sannyaasa means giving up fully. San +nyaasa. So it could be used in renouncing the action, or the fruit of action or the sense of agency of action. In the Gita it is used in all these meanings and hence it should be understood according to the context.

 

Here the word sannyasa means saankhya yoga or jnanayoga, the word saankhya as used in the second chapter. Though both the paths , jnana and karma leads to the same goal the one to choose depends on the mental state of the seeker. Since Arjuna is qualified to do only karma yoga as he had not acquired jnana till then, Krishna said that karmayoga is better than jnanayoga.

 

The one who follows saankhyayoga is the one who has already acquired self control and has given up agency of action and sees Brahman everywhere and hence the action has no effect on him. Till then one has to do karmayoga only giving up the desire for  the fruit of action by offering all his actions to the Lord. Gradually he gives up the sense of agency when he acquires the jnana that all is Brahman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan
http://www.sadagopan.org




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