GITA  AT  A  GLANCE   –   CHAPTER 18    (PART  1)( 1 – 18 verses)

This is the last chapter in Bhagavad Gita.  This chapter can be said as the essence of Bhagavad Gita.  It is quite big chapter with seventy-eight beautiful verses.  Bhagavan Sri Krishna makes clear the concept of sanyasa (renunciation) very clearly in this chapter.  In this chapter, Arjuna calls Sri Krishna as Kesinishudhana (the slayer of kesi, Kesi was an Asura whom Lord Krishna slew).  Arjuna asks Sri krishna to make clear the difference between Sanyasa (renunciation) and tyaga (abandonment).

Bhagavan Krishna says that renunciation is the non-performance of actions of desire.  For example, performance of an Ashwamedha Yagna by a Rishi must be avoided. A sage must avoid all the Kamya Karmas.  Tyaga is the renunciation of the fruits of action.

If one renounces all actions after the attainment of self-realization and enter into Sanyasa then it is called Vidvat-Sannyasa.

It one renounces all actions and enters into the order of Sannyasa for the sake of doing Vedanta-Vichara then it is called Vividisha-Sannyasa.

Some sages say that all the actions should not be renounced; actions of sacrifice, gift and austerity should not be renounced.  Bhagavan Krishna says that I will tell the final truth about tyaga.

Tyaga are of three types. Bhagavan says that acts of sacrifice, gift and Austerity should not be abandoned but should be performed since they are the purifiers of the wise.  But even these actions should be performed without attachment for the desires for rewards.

One should not renounce the obligatory actions like, bathing, cleaning the house, nitya puja etc.  If one renounces it then it is said as Tamasic.  One who abandons action due to fear or difficulty, then it is said as Rajasic renunciation.  When an obligatory action is done, merely because it is ought to be done, abandoning attachment and also the desire for reward, that renunciation is regarded as sattvic (pure).  A man of renunciation neither hate to do a work or is attached to do any particular work. Whatever comes in his way he will do it with devotion and sincerity without attachment for the result of action.  An embodied soul cannot abandon actions entirely; he who relinquishes the rewards of action is called a man of renunciation.

Bhagavan says that the threefold fruit of action (evil, good and mixed) accrues after death if he has attachment to the action or fruits of action. To perform any action five factors are needed – the body, the doer, various senses, different functions and the presiding deity.   However, it is the self which gives power to make all these functions.  He who is free from ego, whose intelligence is not tainted, though he slays these people, he slays not as he is not bound by the action.  So, it is the ego that decides the karma.

Continued……..