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 tree 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 in
number divided, 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 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 selfdeception, 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, which is free from the
influence of these three modes of material
nature.
Spoken
by Anand Aadhar Prabhu
to
the text offered below