This summary is about verses 5.1 to 5.7 of the fifth chapter and verses 6.1 to 6.4 of the sixth chapter of the Gita. There are eleven verses in all. On The Path of Karma Yoga it comes after Equanimity. Its foundation is Can We Simply Stop Acting?. And further on is Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action, which holds the full definition in verses 18.2 and 18.11.

The answer in one line

Both paths lead to the supreme good, but for one who is still on the road, karma yoga is the better (Gita 5.2). True renunciation happens not outside but within: neither hating nor desiring (Gita 5.3), and the dropping of plans born of desire (Gita 6.2, Gita 6.4). The renunciant is one who does his duty without taking the fruit as his support (Gita 6.1).

Letting go is necessary, but what is to be let go is the grip. Renunciation is not a place one arrives at. It happens inside the one who acts. Renunciation and karma yoga are two names for one inner change.

What problem this answers

There is tiredness and pulling in work, and it seems that peace will come from giving up everything and going to solitude. But home, work and duties also have their place. So is it necessary to draw back for peace, or can a person stay free while remaining in work?

The setting

In the third chapter the Lord had already spoken of two lines of devotion: for the wise through knowledge, and for the doers through action (Gita 3.3). Then, at the end of the fourth chapter, He said that actions do not bind one who has offered them through yoga and whose doubts are cut by knowledge (Gita 4.41). This sounds like giving up action, and also like doing it.

Arjuna is tangled. In one breath the Lord praises both renunciation and action. So he needs one clear decision. The answer runs from verse 5.1 to verse 6.4. The fuller definition of renunciation comes later, in the eighteenth chapter.

The verses in order

Verse 5.1: Arjuna's question

Arjuna says: You praise renunciation of actions, giving them up, and then You praise karma yoga, acting without clinging. Tell me for certain which of the two will truly bring good.

Arjuna is not arguing philosophy. He is asking for a decision for himself. The war is before him, and the question is whether to fight or to give everything up and withdraw. He takes both things he has heard to be true. He does not need to prove one wrong. He needs to choose for himself.

Verse 5.2: both give good, karma yoga is better

The verse has two parts. The first part is about the goal: both give the supreme good. One who chooses renunciation, leaving home and earning to give the whole time to practice, loses nothing. The Gita does not look down on that road.

The second part compares the roads: karma yoga is better than the giving up of action. This is not about status. The reason is in verse 5.6: for one still on the road, giving up action is hard.

It is not said that everything is the same, and it is not said that one road is useless. The goal is one, but for the one walking, one road is easier.

Verse 5.3: the true renunciant, who neither hates nor desires

The Lord changes the mark of a renunciant. It is not one who left home, put on saffron or stopped work. One who neither hates nor desires is the constant renunciant.

Hatred is pushing something away, and desire is pulling it close. In both the mind is bound. One who rises above them, freed from the pull of pairs such as pleasure and pain, slips easily out of bondage.

"Constant" means this is not a peace of a few days. One who is sometimes sunk in desire and sometimes in hatred does not meet this mark, wherever he lives. And on the other side, even a householder can come under it. The matter moves from outside to inside.

Verses 5.4 and 5.5: two roads, one goal

Verse 5.4 says that those who call the two different are the half-informed, not the wise. One who is well established even in one gets the fruit of both (Gita 5.4).

Verse 5.5 says that the state the man of knowledge reaches is reached by the karma yogi too. One who sees the two as having one goal sees rightly (Gita 5.5).

Think of two roads to one city, one over the hills and one along the river. The quarrel begins when the one on the hill says the one by the river will never arrive. The result is that one on the road of karma yoga need not worry about falling behind the renunciants. The fruit is one in both.

Verses 5.6 and 5.7: why renunciation is hard without karma yoga

Verse 5.6 says that renunciation is hard to reach without karma yoga, and the thoughtful one established in karma yoga quickly reaches the supreme (Gita 5.6).

The reason is that one who runs from work carries his grip with him. The wanting, the fear and the clinging are the same; only the place has changed. Even one sitting on a hill can worry about what people think. One who loosens the grip on the fruit while working is practising exactly the thing that has to be let go. The training goes on inside the work.

"Quickly" means that a practice done in daily work needs no separate time. It is tried out every day.

Verse 5.7 gives the picture of the karma yogi. One established in karma yoga, with a pure heart, mind and senses in hand, who sees his own self in all beings, is not tainted though he acts (Gita 5.7). The action has not become lighter. It simply leaves no stain, as water does not stay on a lotus leaf (Gita 5.10).

Verses 6.1 and 6.2: the renunciant and the yogi are one

Verse 6.1 says that one who does the action that ought to be done without taking the fruit as his support is both the renunciant and the yogi. One who has given up the sacred fire or action is not, for that reason, a renunciant or a yogi (Gita 6.1).

This is no insult to those who give up action. It only says that giving up alone is not enough. The test is whether the action rests on the fruit. In this way the difference between karma yoga and renunciation almost disappears.

Verse 6.2 says that what is called renunciation, know that to be yoga, for no one becomes a yogi without giving up plans born of desire (Gita 6.2). The condition for being a yogi is neither a posture nor the stopping of action. It is that the mind has stopped making plans of the kind "when this happens I shall be happy".

Verses 6.3 and 6.4: action is the means while climbing, peace after arriving

Verse 6.3 says that for the thoughtful one who wishes to climb to yoga, action done without desire for the fruit is the means. And for one who has climbed, inner peace is the means (Gita 6.3). Action is the means of the one climbing the ladder.

This peace is not laziness. It is the pause after the climb is done. When the practice of loosening the grip has ripened, the mind stays calm by itself, and action comes out of that peace.

Verse 6.4 says that one is called risen in yoga when he clings neither to the objects of the senses nor to actions, and has given up every plan born of desire (Gita 6.4). The mark is not the absence of action. It is the absence of attachment to action. At the height too the test is the same: is there clinging or not.

The eleven verses at a glance

Verse 5.1 asks Arjuna to keep his confusion clear. In verse 5.2 both paths are good and karma yoga is the better, so no one is to be thought low and the choice is to be made rightly. In verse 5.3 neither hating nor desiring is constant renunciation, so the inner hatred and desire are to be recognised. In verses 5.4 and 5.5 the half-informed call the paths different though the goal is one, so both roads are to be respected. In verses 5.6 and 5.7 renunciation is hard without karma yoga and the karma yogi arrives quickly, so the practice of letting go is to be done within work. In verses 6.1 and 6.2 the one who acts without the fruit as support is both renunciant and yogi, so what is to be given up is the plans of desire, not action. And in verses 6.3 and 6.4 action is the means while climbing and peace after arriving, so peace is not to be mistaken for laziness.

Why the teaching is built this way

Other places in the Gita say the same. Verse 18.2 says that giving up actions done from desire is renunciation, and giving up the grip on the fruit of all action is relinquishment (Gita 18.2). So there are two things to leave: actions of desire, and the clinging to the fruit.

Verse 18.11 says that one with a body cannot give up action wholly, and the one who gives up the grip on the fruit is the real relinquisher (Gita 18.11). Giving up action is not so much in our hands as giving up the grip.

Verses 3.4 and 3.5 say that not beginning action does not bring freedom from action, outward giving up alone does not bring perfection, and nobody remains even a moment without action (Gita 3.4–5). Verses 5.11 and 5.12 say that the karma yogi acts, giving up attachment through body, mind, intellect and senses, for the purification of the self, and by giving up the fruit gains lasting peace (Gita 5.11–12).

Verse 18.49 says that one whose intellect is unattached everywhere reaches, through renunciation, the supreme perfection beyond the bond of action (Gita 18.49). The goal is the same. And verse 6.46 says that the yogi is higher than the ascetic, the learned and the ritualist, so, Arjuna, be a yogi (Gita 6.46). The higher place is not of dress or method. It is of inner state.

The sum is this: action cannot be wholly given up, and mere giving up gains nothing. The Gita's road is that action goes on and the grip goes. That is why karma yoga is the better.

Three common misunderstandings

The first misunderstanding is that leaving the world is higher than working in it. That is not so. Verse 5.2 says the opposite, that for one on the road karma yoga is better (Gita 5.2), and verse 6.1 changes the very definition of a renunciant (Gita 6.1). Height is settled not by giving up action but by giving up the grip.

The second is that karma yoga means working non-stop, never pausing. That is not so. When the climb is done, peace becomes the means (Gita 6.3), and moderation in food, work, sleep and waking is the base of yoga (Gita 6.17). Karma yoga is not a tiring race. It is a steady life.

The third is that renunciation and karma yoga are rival roads. Those who call them apart are half-informed (Gita 5.4), and the fruit is one. Setting one against the other is not the Gita's word.

Testing the wish to "give it all up"

When the wish "let me give it all up" rises, it can be tested in five steps.

First, name what you want to run from: the work, a person, the circumstances, or your own tiredness. Once it has a clear name, the confusion is half gone.

Then ask what in it you are clinging to: praise, security or control. This is where plans born of desire hide (Gita 6.4).

Then finish the work and let go of the grip. Give full effort, but do not take the fruit as your support (Gita 6.1).

Then watch hatred and desire as they rise, and let them go. Do not fight them, and do not follow them (Gita 5.3).

And at the end of the day keep a little peace. It is both the fruit of the climb and the means for the climb ahead (Gita 6.3).

Questions people ask

Is it wrong to choose the life of a renunciant? No. Both give the supreme good (Gita 5.2). The verses only add an inner test: the renunciant is one in whom there is neither hatred nor desire (Gita 5.3).

What does "constant renunciant" mean? The absence of hatred and desire is a state of all times, not of one time (Gita 5.3). Renunciation is a state. It is not a single moment or a single decision.

If I rest or meditate, am I stopping action? No. For one risen in yoga, peace is the means (Gita 6.3), and a balanced life is the base of yoga (Gita 6.17). It would be stopping only if rest were used as an excuse to avoid action.

What is the difference between relinquishment and renunciation? By verse 18.2, giving up actions done from desire is renunciation, and giving up attachment to the fruit is relinquishment (Gita 18.2). The note is the same and the range is different.

Why is it "quickly" for the karma yogi? Because the practice goes on inside the work (Gita 5.6). The very thing to be let go, the grip on the fruit, is exercised every day. The mind grows pure and begins to see its own self in all (Gita 5.7).

If you have to explain it in thirty seconds

Arjuna asks: renunciation or karma yoga, tell me for certain (Gita 5.1). The Lord says both give the supreme good, but karma yoga is better (Gita 5.2). The renunciant is not one who left home or work. He is one in whom there is neither hatred nor desire (Gita 5.3), and who does his duty without taking the fruit as his support (Gita 6.1). Those who call the two different are half-informed, for the fruit is one (Gita 5.4–5). But one who runs from work carries his grip with him, so the karma yogi arrives sooner (Gita 5.6). While climbing, action is the means, and on arriving, peace (Gita 6.3). So before giving up anything outside, loosen the grip inside. Action goes on, and the grip goes.

Related hubs: The Path of Karma Yoga (path) · Equanimity (before) · Can We Simply Stop Acting? · Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action