CHAPTER 18a: THE YOGA OF LIBERATION THROUGH
RENUNCIATION
About
renunciation and its threefold nature.
(1) Arjuna said:
'One by one I wish to know about the reality of the renounced order, o
mighty armed one, and to understand what renunciation is, o master of
the senses, killer of Kes'î.
(2) The Supreme
Lord said: 'Giving up the desire of activities is what the learned know
as the renounced order while the forsaking of all fruits of action is
what the experienced call renunciation. (3) One group of great minds says that fruitive
work is an evil and must thus be given up while others say that the
works of sacrifice, charity and penance are never to be given up in
this. (4) To be sure
about this renunciation, o best of the Bhâratas, it is in fact
declared to be of three kinds, o tiger among men: (5) Sacrifice, charity and penance; they are
never to be given up and for sure obliged to do that sacrifice, charity
and penance is there even for the great souls purification. (6) But with all these activities must without
doubt, performing them out of duty, the association with their results
be given up; that, o son of Prithâ, is My last and best word on
it.
(7) Renunciation
then of activities never implies the forsaking of prescribed duties; a
renunciation thus led by illusion is declared to be of ignorance. (8) He who performs renunciation and gives up
out of fear, because such a workload might be troublesome or a
discomfort to the body, is for sure of passion and never certain of the
outcome. (9)
Prescribed work then indeed done out of discipline, o Arjuna, and in
association with giving up on the result - that renunciation is, in My
view, of goodness. (10)
The renouncer who never hates disagreeable work nor gets attached to
the agreeable is absorbed in goodness and has an intelligence free from
doubt. (11)
For sure it is not possible for the embodied one to be renounced in all
activities together, but the renouncer is said to be anyone who is the
renouncer of the fruit of labor. (12) The three kinds of karmic consequence of
finding things going to hell, reaching to heaven or having a mixture of
these, come after leaving the world for those who did not renounce, but
this is never the case for the renounced order.
(13) Understand
from Me that it is said that, in the end of Vedic analysis, o mighty
armed one, for the perfection of all activities, there are these five
agents: (14)
The place, the doer, the variety of different means and the separate
ways as surely also the divine as the fifth. (15) These are the five that lead to all the
karma which one physically takes up, in speech and in mind, doing right
or the contrary. (16)
So, anyone who sees his soul in this as the only agent is then not led
by intelligence; he is of a foolish vision. (17) One whose nature is never falsely
identified; one whose intelligence is never blinded; he, even killing
in this world, never kills nor does he become entangled.
(18) Knowledge,
the known and knower are the three incentives for action; the senses,
the karma and the doer are, as you know, the threefold constituents. (19) One says that knowledge, action and the doer
are for certain as well of three kinds in terms of the three modes of
nature; hear also how they are all set apart. (20) That knowledge by which one sees the
imperishable ground of all living entities as undivided although they
are divided in
number, you should know to be in goodness. (21) But that knowledge which of division to the
diverse situations understands that ground as different in all the
living beings must be known as being of passion. (22) And that which is fixed on one type of work
as if that would be all, is unfounded, lacks in reality and is too
easy; it is said to be of darkness.
(23) That action
which is regulated, without attachment, like or dislike and done
without desiring the result is said to be of goodness. (24) But that work which is done in hot pursuit,
identified with the material, or again is done with a lot of pressure;
that is said to be in the mode of passion. (25) But that work which is after attachment, is
destructive, causes distress and has no regard for the consequences or
is begun being mistaken about ones own capacity; that is said to be of
ignorance.
(26) A worker
freed from attachment, not to the service of the body, qualified with
resolve doing the best he can, unwavering in accomplishment and
failure, one says is in the mode of goodness. (27) A worker is declared to be of passion if he
is very attached in his desire of working for the result, is
avaricious, of a violent nature, impure in his motives and led by joy
and sorrow. (28)
Unconnected, materialistic, obstinate, deceitful, waging against
others, lazy, morose and procrastinating is what one says of the worker
in the mode of ignorance.
(29) O winner of
wealth, now listen as I describe to you in detail how the individual
types of intelligence and conviction are certainly also differing in
three kinds to the modes of nature. (30) O son of Prithâ, understanding, which
knows how to move onwards and how to refrain from it, what should be
done and what not, what is to be feared and not to be feared and what
is of bondage and what of liberation; know that to be of goodness. (31) Not precisely knowing of what is to the
original nature and what goes against, what would be right and what
would be wrong; that intelligence, o son of Prithâ, is in the
mode of passion. (32)
The intelligence which thus covered by illusion thinks unrighteousness
to be true nature and thinks that everything goes the wrong way; that
intelligence, o son of Prithâ, is of ignorance.
(33) That bearing
which by an unbroken practice of yoga retains the activity of the mind,
the life-force and the sense-organs; that resolve, o son of
Prithâ, is of the mode of goodness. (34) But the attitude, o Arjuna, by which one
holds on to ones righteous duty, enjoyment and material progress out of
attachment in desiring the fruits; that determination, o son of
Prithâ is in the mode of passion. (35) That will by which one never gives up the
sleeping, fearing, lamenting, drooping and surely also the presuming,
is of an unintelligent attitude in the mode of ignorance, o son of
Prtha.
(36) But hear from
Me now about three kinds of happiness one enjoys by fortitude, o best
amongst the Bhâratas and of which one reaches the end of sorrow. (37) That happiness which is in the beginning
like poison but in the end compares to nectar, is in the mode of
goodness said to be born in the soul from the grace of intelligence. (38) That happiness which results from the
contact of the senses with the sense-objects and which in the beginning
is just like nectar but in the end is like poison; that happiness is
considered to be in the mode of passion. (39) That which from the beginning to the end is
happiness produced by self-deception, sloth, laziness and
misunderstanding, that is said to be of ignorance. (40) There is no being in existence either on
earth or in the higher spheres among the divine, who is free from the
influence of these three modes of material nature.'
Spoken by Anand Aadhar Prabhu
to the text offered below