Sri Krishna has already set forth his views about the performance of yajña, dāna and tapas. He now expounds his thoughts on the remaining, wider range of activities. Our activities and interactions generally fall into two categories: religious and secular. Yajña, dāna and tapas constitute the religious and everything else must be viewed as secular. Secular activities can be various. But primarily they are personal, domestic, professional or social.
Tāmasika renunciation
What is the pronouncement on tyāga and sannyāsa as related to secular activities? Krishna discusses the subject quite elaborately, with his own distinct notes:
Renunciation of action prescribed or otherwise necessary, will not be right. Renouncing it out of delusion or ignorance is clearly said to be tāmasika (induced by tamo-guṇa).
Any action, called for on one account or another, related to one’s life with all its relevance and context, is not to be abandoned, by any standard. This is a very clear statement applying to all activities.
Activities devolving upon an individual are personal, familial and societal. Upkeep of personal hygiene, food intake, exercise, rest and such others are personal. Then come those related to his domestic responsibilities – looking after the welfare of the family members, their education, health, growth and prosperity. To pursue a profession as an essential part of this responsibility forms another important aspect of one’s activities.
Besides these are such activities, wherein one interacts with the society, its members, in various ways for different purposes. Going to zones of trading, offices of administration, abodes of worship, parks, playgrounds or similar avenues of relaxation and other precincts for a variety of needs come under the social group.
In the performance of these secular activities, interactions with individuals and groups or with places and events become necessary. All these activities together make a balanced life. To look after one’s own body, to ensure the welfare of the family members and also to help in ensuring the welfare of the society at large – all these should be given due importance.
Whether it is a personal, familial, professional or social act, whatever needs to be done must be attended to and cannot be devalued or neglected on any account. Abandonment of any act cannot be thought of or effected. Abandoning, relinquishing or eschewing work does not fit in with the fundamental proposition set forth by Krishna in the 3rd chapter – that under the comprehensive hold of Nature none has any freedom to remain inactive. The three guṇas of prakṛti (Nature) are inexorable in their effects on the beings upon the earth.
As Nature enfolds us everywhere, the question of shunning activities does not arise at all. Not knowing this fact, nay truth of Nature, one may be tempted to think of a possible relinquishment of activities, as Arjuna did at first. Only in the thought or idea level such a proposition can be relevant. It will not have any bearing beyond.
Arjuna has not left the war-field. But he certainly felt that he must and would leave. He expressed the idea to Krishna, though in the way of a firm decision or resolution. Krishna instantly questioned, disapproved and spurned it, discussing the subject in all its relevance. That is how the dialogue became a philosophical dissertation. Arjuna articulated his intention, stating the factors that made him think in such lines.
He felt that to fight the war was sinful, religiously speaking. It was not in tune with the normal human emotional responses. Religious perception was against it, as the consequences would mean indefinite damnation in hell. It was greed for kingdom and royal pleasures that motivates armies to fight, he felt.
Yes, if it was all this, then Arjuna would have been right in saying and doing what he proposed. But Krishna looks at the whole proposition from all angles – religious and secular – and finds an altogether different vision, assessment. In discussing these, the dialogue has traversed through 17 chapters and has entered the 18th, the last. “Is there anything called tyāga or sannyāsa then? If so, what exactly is it?” These are the final questions in Arjuna’s mind needing clarification.
Krishna provides the answer, viewing the subject of renunciation in the light in which he had explained it in earlier chapters and adding a few more salient thoughts, so that the vision becomes full, comprehensive. Niyatasya means “prescribed or viewed as necessary in the context of one’s life, with all that it implies.” That is how the personal, familial, professional and social aspects are brought in, to understand the subject. If, for any of these reasons, an action becomes necessary, none should ever think of renouncing or abandoning it.
Vālmīki was an ascetic, a renunciate. Yet, Sri Rama confidently abandoned his wife Sītā near his hermitage, hoping that the compassionate Sage would understand her difficult situation and give asylum. Whether Rama was right or wrong in having thought in this way, is not the discussion here. Vālmīki came to know from his disciples that a cultured woman was found in distress near his hermitage. “She obviously needs your attention and care, venerable sir”, said the disciples to the Master. Vālmīki instantly went to her and decided to give asylum. It was not an involvement of an hour or a day, but of decades and more.
To be sympathetic to others and do whatever is necessary in the context, is characteristic of any good person, especially an ascetic. In fact, it is this ascetic compulsion that makes the Knowers devote their whole time for loka-saṅgraha (social benevolence). Dissemination of spiritual Wisdom is their mission. They author scriptures, conduct yajñas, tutor disciples, host seekers and organize many an activity to further social welfare. What a tremendous task it becomes! Who, except the Knowers can take up such an enlightening mission?
“Prescribed or necessary” has thus a broad, even complex, relevance. Individual’s potential, predilection, emotional or intelligential affinity will determine the “necessary activities”. Some activities everyone has to perform. What these are, alone will differ.
For a Sage, it is the sagely activities. For a fighter and ruler, it is such as are relevant to him. To a Teacher, it will be those related to teaching. For a housewife, it will be whatsoever falls within her orbit. In fact, these individual activities cover a very wide range. Altogether they constitute the complex and comprehensive societal whole.
Spirituality does not permit disregard, laxity or abandonment of any of these. In fact, the earth is itself a great forum in the Universe, where humans as well as non-humans flourish and prosper by their respective activities. The entire wheel of creation has to revolve, helped by every little cog in it. The wheel is not going to stop its revolution any time. This is the truth.
To act is to keep this wheel revolving, to preserve the overall welfare, rhythm and felicity.
Being so, if anyone thinks of abandoning his share or role of activity, it can only be due to a basic delusion in him (mohāt). Delusion can, of course, grip the human mind any time, sometimes in a strange and appalling manner. Such delusional shunning of work also has a place in the scheme of creation. Krishna calls it tāmasika, meaning it is demotional, belonging to the lowest level. Like darkness, slush and dirt, it calls for right identification and cleansing.
What does this mean, in effect, in the context of Arjuna and the Kurukṣetra war? Any thought, for any reason whatever, of leaving the battlefield and shunning the war, adducing whatever reason for the matter, will be totally a delusional step. Spiritual wisdom will not allow it. It condemns it outright. It is but tāmasika, adverse, perverse and anti-evolutional. And yet, tamo-guṇa has also its place – it is part of creation. Laziness is a characteristic of human beings. It does not allow them to work with interest, persuasion and joy. Some will be victims to its hold. What should be noted is that, such victims incur this kind of self-imposed disadvantage. With this, the first part of Krishna’s analysis of the subject is over.
Rājasika renunciation
He takes up the second part, extending the principle of abandonment to another level, the inner, in which the mind is the primary focus.
To renounce activities fearing that they cause bodily strain and discomfort would be a rājasika step, and will not shower the benefit of true renunciation.
Any kind of karma is uncomfortable to start with, primarily because it involves physical and also mental exertion. The senses – jñānendriyas (organs of perception) as well as karmendriyas (organs of action) – have to be sharply engaged with diligence. The tasks could be multifarious. The legs have to stand or walk for a long time. May be, the mouth and tongue are to be engaged to bring out the right words and pronunciation. The reluctance and opposition to all this is so much that it appears easier to escape from the whole ‘persecution’. Any step of this kind is rājasika, says Krishna.
By evading actions in this manner, none will get the benefit of tyāga at all. Real tyāga has a different emphasis. It acts on a different level and plane.
Here also Krishna is clearly against any kind of physical renunciation of any act. Whether you renounce activity out of delusion or finding the exertion unpleasant, uncomfortable or painful, it is renunciation all right, but not the right one to sublimate the mind. Activities are a definite part of human life for the upkeep of bodily life and ensuring the welfare of the society. There is no question of renouncing them at all.
What is tyāga then? Is there any tyāga at all, possible or actual? Physical renunciation is, according to Krishna, ridiculous, hypocritical. Naturally, the seeker is obliged to raise his imagination and pin tyāga on the higher inner level. The matter becomes quite clear. And this is what Krishna aims at.
The purpose of any discussion is to enlighten man. Ideas, propositions and procedures are all subjected to a very close rational examination. The object is to find out whether they are feasible, proper and useful. Often this kind of evaluative consideration is not taken up.
The senses are consistently outgoing, even with a craze. This irresistibly involves the inner organ, the mind. When the mind is gripped by desire and delusion, the intelligence gets no occasion to play its role of check and balance. Even if it wants to, the mind is not receptive to it. It is all a plight of confusion and clouding.
Sāttvika renunciation
Having described the two levels and kinds of renunciation – delusional and reluctance-oriented, tāmasika and rājasika – Krishna proceeds to reveal the true renunciation and how it should be attempted and actualized. Krishna’s next words in the text are of paramount importance. The two earlier verses serve as a prelude to know by contrast what is not true renunciation:
कार्यमित्येव यत्कर्म नियतं क्रियतेऽर्जुन ।सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलं चैव स त्यागः सात्त्विको मतः ।।kāryam-ity-eva yat-karma niyatam kriyate’rjuna |saṅgam tyaktvā phalam caiva sa tyāga: sāttviko mata: ||(Bhagavad Gita 18.9)O Arjuna, whichever activity – enjoined by Scriptures or otherwise – when performed avoiding saṅga and relinquishing attachment to result, would constitute sāttvika renunciation.
In contrast to the tāmasika and rājasika relinquishment, Krishna now discloses the sāttvika kind. Here, what is relinquished is not action or activity, but the wrong attitude and attachment (saṅga) towards it. No action, as such, can be eschewed. The only thing to be left is the wrong ideas and perceptions about it.
Mind produces wrong as well as right thoughts. If its offshoots are wrong, they should be abandoned and the right ones installed in their place. Thus dispossessing the wrong outlook and possessing the right one is the sāttvika, enlightened process of dealing with the mind.
Once a task, small or big – be it personal, familial, professional or social – is to be performed for a valid reason, do so wholeheartedly. The motivation is that it is required to be done. We are supposed to be active. When activities are called for and they are unavoidable, why not yoke ourselves to them earnestly?
But in doing so, the saṅga, attachment or undue psychological identification, should be dispensed with. Between an action and its result, anything can come up or interfere. What will and when, none can predict. So leave the course of things to itself. Play your part zealously. Put your mind and attention to the task at hand in all effectiveness. That it is to be done, should be the sole consideration behind the performance.
Who can predict the outcome of the war Arjuna is going to fight? Bheeshma and Drona are unconquerable. So too are many others. To subdue all of them and ultimately to win is by no means an assured outcome. At the same time, the war has to be fought.
On one of the days of the battle, Arjuna was away contending the Samśaptakas. His leadership was not available in the main front. Yudhiṣṭhira and the rest were confronted by the चक्रव्यूह (cakravyūha) formed by the opponents. None of the elders had the skill to penetrate it. They were at their wit’s end.
They called Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son, a valorous and skilled fighter, and told him that he should help them in the crisis. Abhimanyu said: “I shall penetrate this चक्रव्यूह (cakravyūha), but if caught inside I may not be able to come out. I do not yet know that skill.” Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Do not fear. Enter in and we shall follow you. Once we are inside, there is no danger.”
Abhimanyu agreed and dashed in. But, before Yudhiṣṭhira and his men could get in, Jayadratha sealed the entry point and none could penetrate further. Abhimanyu was trapped inside. All the Mahārathas (great warriors) of the enemy surrounded and jointly fought Abhimanyu. He held his ground for long, but was killed in the end.
Any venture, will always have some unpredictable elements, as happened in this instance. Yudhiṣṭhira’s intention was quite in place. He meant what he said. He was sure that nothing untoward would happen to Abhimanyu. For, along with all the other powerful heroes of the Pāṇḍava army, he himself would be there inside the cakravyūha. But in minutes the most unexpected intercepted. Yudhiṣṭhira and the rest were pitiably kept away, leaving the young Abhimanyu alone inside.
Does this not make it clear that anything may intercept the expected outcome of our efforts? The only safeguard will be to avoid saṅga towards the outcome. Mind should be enriched and empowered to act with poise in any situation. Instead of expecting a sure specific outcome and working in that hope, the mind should imbibe and display a natural note of readiness and poise, without getting seduced by hope or weakened by fear. In this is saṅga-tyāga. With saṅga-tyāga also comes tyāga of the attachment to the fruit or result.
Saṅga is a product of ignorance, delusion and disharmony. With the dawning of clarity through wisdom, spiritual integration results, leading to the extinction of bheda-buddhi (differential outlook). Mind can always swing from bad to good, and also from good to bad. Make it swing to the good. Intelligence can also shift from doubt to clarity and right decision. Make it do so.
This process of cleansing the mind and making it poised, treating the intelligence and rendering it clear and resolute, is the sāttvika-tyāga. By this is one enlightened and illumined. For this, there is no need to stop or withdraw from any action. Performance of whatever is necessary with a frame of mind that gives peace, poise and enlightenment is what is needed.
The whole process of relinquishment is applicable to the mind. It consists of abandoning the troublesome note and imbuing the viable, vibrant and luminous one. Understand the difference very well.
To summarize the discussion:
Physical relinquishment of action is not possible. Such a scope is not provided by Nature.
What is possible and required is inner renunciation. That is, renunciation of the saṅga (undue identification) towards actions. With this, whatever is necessary should be pursued with poise, persistence and peace. Mind’s disturbing elements alone can and should be renounced.
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(From Essential Concepts in Bhagavad Gita - Volume 6)