Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 5: The Yoga of the Renunciation of Action

Source context

Theme

renunciation of the fruits of action as the path to liberation through disciplined non-attachment

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as a harmonious interpenetration of the three great spiritual streams of Indian wisdom, within which the teaching of actionless action (karma-sannyasa) represents the Vedantic stream's contribution to the whole.
• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner treats the gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) as the operative cosmological backdrop to Krishna's instruction on renunciation, placing the Gita's teaching on inner detachment within the framework of the soul's passive ascent toward Brahma that characterised the pre-Christian spiritual age.

Cross-tradition

• Advaita Vedanta (Shankara)Shankara's commentary on Discourse 5 interprets karma-sannyasa and karma-yoga as ultimately non-different for the knower of Brahman, structurally parallel to the Gita's own resolution that outward renunciation and inward non-attachment yield the same liberation.
• Stoic philosophy (Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius)Stoic discipline of acting in accordance with logos while remaining indifferent to outcomes (ta eph' hēmin / ta ouk eph' hēmin) exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Discourse 5's insistence that the sage acts without personal appropriation of results.
• Sufi mysticism (fana / tawakkul)The Sufi concept of tawakkul (complete reliance on and surrender to the divine will in action) exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Krishna's instruction that the yogi acts while mentally surrendering all fruits to the Supreme.

Discourse 5: The Yoga of the Renunciation of Action

5:1Arjuna said: Renunciation of actions Thou praisest, O Krishna, and then also
yoga. Of the two which one is the better? That tell me conclusively.

5:2The Blessed Lord said: Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest
bliss; of the two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action.

5:3He should be known as a perpetual ascetic, who neither hateth nor desireth; free
from the pairs of opposites, O mighty-armed, he is easily set free from bondage.

5:4Children, not Sages, speak of the Sankhya and the Yoga as different; he who is
duly established in one obtaineth the fruits of both.

5:5That place which is gained by the Sankhyas is reached by the Yogis also. He
seeth, who seeth that the Sankhya and the Yoga are one.

5:6But without yoga, O mighty-armed, renunciation is hard to attain to; the yoga-
harmonised Muni swiftly goeth to the ETERNAL.

5:7He who is harmonised by yoga, the self-purified, SELF-ruled, the senses
subdued, whose SELF is the SELF of all being, although acting he is not affected. Verses 5:8 & 5:9: "I do not anything,” should think the harmonised one, who knoweth the essence of things seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating moving, sleeping, breathing. Speaking, giving, grasping, opening and closing the eyes, he holdeth: "The senses move among the objects of the senses."

5:10He who acteth, placing all actions in the ETERNAL, abandoning attachment, is
unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters.

5:11Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform action only by the body, by the
mind, by the Reason, and even by the senses, for the purification of the self.

5:12The harmonised man, having abandoned the fruit of action, attaineth to the
eternal Peace; the non-harmonised, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, are bound.

5:13Mentally renouncing all actions, the sovereign dweller in the body resteth
serenely in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing to act.

5:14The Lord of the world produceth not the idea of agency, nor actions, nor the
union together of action and its fruit; nature, however, manifesteth.

5:15The Lord accepteth neither the evil-doing nor yet the well-doing of any.
Wisdom is enveloped by unwisdom; therewith mortals are deluded.

5:16Verily, in whom unwisdom is destroyed by the wisdom of the SELF, in them
wisdom, shining as the sun, reveals the Supreme.

5:17Thinking on THAT, merged in THAT, established in THAT, solely devoted to
THAT, they go whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by wisdom.

5:18Sages look equally on a Brahmana adorned with learning and humility, a cow,
an elephant, and even a dog and an outcaste.

5:19Even here on earth everything is overcome by those whose mind remains
balanced; the ETERNAL is incorruptible and balanced; therefore they are established in the ETERNAL.

5:20With Reason firm, unperplexed, the knower of the ETERNAL established in the
ETERNAL, neither rejoiceth on obtaining what is pleasant, nor sorroweth on obtaining what is unpleasant.

5:21He, whose self is unattached to external contacts and findeth joy in the SELF,
having the self harmonised with the ETERNAL by yoga, enjoys imperishable bliss.

5:22The delights that are contact-born, they are verily wombs of pain, for they have
beginning and ending, O Kaunteya; not in them may rejoice the wise.

5:23He who is able to endure here on earth, ere he be liberated from the body, the
force born from desire and passion, he is harmonised, he is a happy man.

5:24He who is happy within, who rejoiceth within, who is illuminated within, that
Yogi, becoming the ETERNAL, goeth to the Peace of the ETERNAL.

5:25Rishis, their sins destroyed, their duality removed, their selves controlled, intent
upon the welfare of all beings, obtain the Peace of the ETERNAL.

5:26The Peace of the ETERNAL lies near to those who know themselves, who are
disjoined from desire and passion, subdued in nature, of subdued thoughts. Verses 5:27 & 5:28: Having external contacts excluded, and with gaze fixed between the eyebrows; having made equal the outgoing and ingoing breaths moving within the nostrils; With senses, mind, and Reason ever controlled, solely pursuing liberation, the Sage, having for ever cast away desire, fear and passion, verily is liberated.

5:29Having known Me, as the Enjoyer of sacrifice and of austerity, the mighty Ruler
of all the worlds, and the Lover of all beings, he goeth to Peace.

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