Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 48-1. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2022. 06:50.

Discourse 48: The Eighteenth Chapter Begins – Renunciation, and Types of Action :1.

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We now come to the final chapter of the Bhagavadgita, the Eighteenth Chapter. 

It is the longest chapter in the Gita, in which we have practically a summing up of all the principles that were discussed in the earlier chapters. All things—whatever has been touched upon in the earlier chapters, from the First onwards to the Seventeenth—are brought together by the Teacher into a brief focusing of attention. Very interesting and very comprehensive is this teaching in the Eighteenth Chapter.

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Here, Arjuna raises a question. 

The whole of the Bhagavadgita seems to be somehow or other centred round the principle of renunciation, abandonment of the fruit of action, for the purpose of attaining perfection. The terms ‘sannyasa' and ‘tyaga', meaning thereby abandonment or relinquishing, are used frequently in the Gita. Tyaga is abandoning; sannyasa is relinquishing.

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Now, what is it that we abandon, and what is it that we relinquish? 

The word ‘sannyasa' suggests renunciation, but it does not suggest what should be renounced. Here is the difficulty before all Sannyasins. They know very well that when they take to Sannyasa, something has to be renounced, because the very word ‘sannyasa' means renunciation; but what are they to renounce? Generally they renounce their old clothes and put on new clothes, or they renounce their land and property, their family, etc., if that could be possible.

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Actually, according to the Bhagavadgita at least, such a kind of relinquishment cannot be regarded as Sannyasa. 

This is because a person may be physically away from the object of attraction and attachment, but physical distance from the object of attachment does not necessarily mean absence of attachment. Sannyasins may, even after entering into the holy order, keep in their minds the memory of large estates of land that they had, etc. Renunciation is a difficult thing to understand; and so is the case with tyaga, or abandonment.

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Because of this difficulty, Arjuna puts a question. 

Sannyāsasya mahābāho tattvam icchāmi veditum, tyāgasya ca hṛṣīkeśa pṛthak keśiniṣūdana (18.1): 

“O Lord! I want to know the real meaning of sannyasa, and I also want to know the real meaning of tyaga. Clearly explain to me what is sannyasa, what is tyaga.”

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Na hyasannyastasaṁkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana (6.2) is mentioned in the Sixth Chapter. 

Nobody can be a sannyasin who has not renounced thoughts, determinations, in respect of anything that is to take place in the future. The contemplation of the achievement of something that is to take place in the future is called volition, and anyone who has not renounced volition, or will, cannot be a sannyasin.

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Śrībhagavānuvāca: kāmyānāṁ karmaṇāṁ nyāsaṁ sannyāsaṁ kavayo viduḥ, sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṁ prāhus tyāgaṁ vicakṣaṇāḥ (18.2). 

Here the Lord says sannyasa is that kind of behaviour by which the actions that are connected with desire of some kind or the other are abandoned. A person may be said to be in a state of sannyasa the moment that actions which are motivated by desire are abandoned. That is to say, sannyasa does not mean abandonment of action as such. It means kāmyānāṁ karmaṇāṁ nyāsaṁ: abandonment of actions which are connected with a desire of some kind. If we can think of an action without any desire attached to it, that is a different matter. It is up to us to imagine if such an action is possible at all: an action with which no desire is associated, and from which we expect nothing.

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Here, the reference is to another kind of action. 

Action which is charged with a motive, any kind of motivated action, is kamya karma; and the abandoning of kamya karma, or motivated action, is sannyasa. This is the definition of sannyasa given by great ancient learned ones, called kavis—saṁnyāsaṁ kavayo viduḥ.

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To be continued .....

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