मोक्षसंन्यासयोग
Chapter 18
Moksha Sanyaas Yoga
Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender · 78 verses
Chapter 18 is the Gita's last and longest chapter, traditionally treasured as Moksha-Sannyasa Yoga, the yoga of liberation through letting go. Arjuna asks Krishna to tell two words apart: sannyasa, renouncing action, and tyaga, renouncing the fruit, the reward, of action.
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Krishna answers that sacrifice, giving, and austerity should not be dropped; they purify the mind. What you give up is the attachment and the craving for results, not the work itself. While you have a body, some action always goes on, so real renunciation is inner. Krishna then sorts many things by the three gunas, the basic qualities of nature called sattva (clarity), rajas (restlessness), and tamas (dullness): renunciation, knowledge, action, the doer, the intellect, firmness, and happiness. He names five causes behind every action, so the seeker stops laying sole doership on the self. He maps the four classes and their natural work, and teaches that doing your own duty, offered to the Lord, purifies you and leads toward Brahman, the absolute. The chapter closes with surrender: take refuge in Krishna alone. Here the schools differ on how much agency the self keeps and what surrender means.
Contentsश्लोकाः
- 1Arjuna said: I want to understand the truth about renunciation, Hrishikesha, lord of the senses, and about relinquishment as well, each one separately.
- 2Krishna said: The wise know renunciation to be the giving up of actions driven by desire. The discerning call the letting go of the fruits of all actions relinquishment.
- 3Some wise ones say that action should be given up as an evil. Others say that acts of sacrifice, charity, and austerity should not be given up.
- 4Hear my firm conclusion about relinquishment, Arjuna. Relinquishment, indeed, has been declared to be of three kinds.
- 5Acts of sacrifice, charity, and austerity should not be given up. They should be performed. Sacrifice, charity, and austerity purify the wise.
- 6But even these actions should be done by giving up attachment and the fruits. This is my firm and final conviction, Arjuna.
- 7Giving up an obligatory action is not proper. To abandon it out of delusion is called relinquishment rooted in tamas.
- 8Whoever gives up an action merely because it is painful, out of fear of bodily strain, performs relinquishment rooted in rajas. He does not gain the fruit of relinquishment.
- 9When an obligatory action is done simply because it ought to be done, Arjuna, giving up attachment and the fruit as well, that relinquishment is held to be rooted in sattva.
- 10The one of relinquishment, filled with sattva, wise, and free of doubt, does not hate a disagreeable action, nor cling to an agreeable one.
- 11The embodied self cannot give up actions entirely. But whoever gives up the fruits of action is called one of relinquishment.
- 12The threefold fruit of action, the undesirable, the desirable, and the mixed, comes after death to those who do not relinquish. But it never comes to those who do.
- 13Arjuna, learn from me these five causes for the accomplishment of all action, as taught in the Sankhya system where action comes to rest.
- 14The seat of action, the agent, the various instruments, the many and distinct activities, and the divine as the fifth.
- 15Whatever action a person performs with body, speech, or mind, whether right or wrong, these five are its causes.
- 16This being so, anyone whose discernment is untrained and who sees the Self alone as the agent does not see truly. Such a person is wrong in mind.
- 17One who is free of the sense of 'I am the doer', whose discernment is untainted, does not kill even when killing these people, and is not bound.
- 18Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower are the threefold prompting to action. The instrument, the act, and the doer are the threefold makeup of action.
- 19Knowledge, action, and the doer are of three kinds, set apart by the gunas. So it is declared in the teaching on the gunas. Hear of these too, as they are.
- 20The knowledge by which one sees a single, imperishable being in all beings, undivided within the divided: know that knowledge to be sattvic.
- 21The knowledge that sees in all beings manifold separate entities, each kept apart: know that knowledge to be rajasic.
- 22But the knowledge that clings to one thing as if it were the whole, without reason, not grounded in truth, and trivial: that is called tamasic.
- 23The prescribed action that is done without attachment, free of liking and aversion, by one who does not seek its fruits: that is called sattvic.
- 24But the action that is done with much strain by one who seeks to satisfy desires or is full of ego: that is called rajasic.
- 25Action begun in delusion, with no regard for its consequences, the loss it brings, the injury it does, or one's own ability, is called action in the mode of darkness.
- 26An agent free from attachment, free from ego, firm and full of zeal, unmoved by success and failure, is called an agent of goodness.
- 27An agent who is attached, who craves the fruits of action, greedy, cruel by nature, impure, swept by joy and sorrow, is called an agent of passion.
- 28An agent who is undisciplined, coarse, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, despondent, and given to delay is called an agent of darkness.
- 29Now hear the threefold division of discernment and firmness by the modes, Arjuna, set out fully and one by one.
- 30The discernment that knows action and withdrawal, what should be done and what should not, fear and fearlessness, bondage and freedom, that discernment, Arjuna, is of goodness.
- 31The discernment that grasps dharma and adharma wrongly, and what should be done and what should not, that discernment, Arjuna, is of passion.
- 32The discernment that, wrapped in darkness, takes adharma for dharma and sees all things upside down, that discernment, Arjuna, is of darkness.
- 33The firmness that holds steady, unwavering through yoga, controlling the workings of the mind, the breath, and the senses, that firmness, Arjuna, is of goodness.
- 34The firmness with which one clings to duty, pleasure, and wealth, out of attachment and craving their fruits, that firmness, Arjuna, is of passion.
- 35The firmness by which a dull mind will not let go of sleep, fear, grief, despair, and conceit, that firmness, Arjuna, is of darkness.
- 36Now hear from me the three kinds of happiness, Arjuna. There is the happiness one comes to enjoy through practice, in which one reaches the end of sorrow.
- 37That which is like poison at first but like nectar in the end, born of the serenity of one's own discernment: that happiness is called sattvic.
- 38That which arises from the contact of the senses with their objects, like nectar at first but like poison in the end: that happiness is called rajasic.
- 39That which deludes the self both at the beginning and in the end, arising from sleep, laziness, and heedlessness: that happiness is called tamasic.
- 40There is no being on earth, or among the gods in heaven, that is free from these three qualities born of nature.
- 41The duties of the Brahmanas, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and the Shudras are divided according to the qualities born of their own nature.
- 42Calm, self-control, austerity, purity, forbearance, and uprightness; knowledge, realization, and faith: these are the duties of the Brahmanas, born of their own nature.
- 43Heroism, vigor, firmness, skill, not fleeing from battle, generosity, and leadership: these are the duties of the Kshatriyas, born of their own nature.
- 44Agriculture, cattle-rearing, and trade are the duties of the Vaishyas, born of their own nature. Service is the duty of the Shudras, born of their own nature.
- 45Devoted to one's own duty, a person attains perfection. Hear now how one attains perfection while devoted to one's own duty.
- 46From whom all beings arise and by whom all this is pervaded: by worshipping Him through one's own duty, a person attains perfection.
- 47One's own duty, done imperfectly, is better than another's duty done well. Performing the duty set by one's own nature, a person incurs no sin.
- 48One should not give up the duty to which one is born, even though it is flawed. For all undertakings are clouded by flaws, as fire is by smoke.
- 49One whose discernment is unattached to everything, who has mastered the self and is free of longing, attains through renunciation the supreme perfection: the state beyond all action.
- 50Learn from me in brief, Arjuna, how one who has attained perfection reaches Brahman, the supreme consummation of knowledge.
- 51Endowed with pure discernment, restraining the self with firmness, letting go of sense-objects beginning with sound, and casting aside attraction and aversion;
- 52Keeping to solitude, eating lightly, with speech, body, and mind controlled, ever devoted to meditation, taking refuge in dispassion;
- 53Having let go of egotism, force, pride, desire, anger, and possessiveness, free of the sense of mine and at peace, that person is fit to become Brahman.
- 54Having become Brahman, serene in the Self, one neither grieves nor desires. The same toward all beings, that person attains supreme devotion to me.
- 55Through devotion one comes to know me in truth, what and who I am. Then, knowing me truly, one enters into me at once.
- 56Ever performing all actions, taking refuge in me, one attains by my grace the eternal, imperishable state.
- 57Surrender all actions to me in your mind. Hold me as the supreme goal. Resort to the yoga of discernment, and keep your thought fixed on me always.
- 58With your mind fixed on me, you will cross over all difficulties by my grace. But if out of egotism you will not listen, you will perish.
- 59If, relying on egotism, you think "I will not fight," your resolve is in vain. Your nature will compel you.
- 60Bound by your own duty, born of your nature, you will do helplessly, out of delusion, the very thing you do not wish to do.
- 61The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, Arjuna. By his power of illusion he causes all beings to revolve as if mounted on a machine.
- 62Take refuge in him alone with your whole being, Arjuna. By his grace you will attain supreme peace and the eternal abode.
- 63This knowledge I have explained to you, more secret than any secret. Reflect on it fully. Then act as you wish.
- 64Hear again my supreme word, the most secret of all. You are dear to me, so I will tell you what is good for you.
- 65Fix your mind on me. Be devoted to me. Worship me. Bow down to me. You will come to me alone. I promise you this truly, for you are dear to me.
- 66Abandon all duties and take refuge in me alone. I will free you from all sins. Do not grieve.
- 67Never speak this to one who lacks austerity, who is not devoted, who has no wish to listen, or who speaks ill of me.
- 68Whoever, with supreme devotion to me, teaches this highest secret to my devotees will come to me alone. Of this there is no doubt.
- 69No one among people serves me more dearly than he does. And no one else on earth will be dearer to me than him.
- 70And whoever studies this sacred dialogue of ours worships me through the sacrifice of knowledge. This is my conviction.
- 71And the person who simply listens to this with faith and without scorn, he too is freed and attains the blessed worlds of those who do virtuous deeds.
- 72Have you listened to this with a focused mind, Arjuna? Has your delusion, born of ignorance, been dispelled?
- 73Arjuna said: My delusion is gone. By your grace I have regained my memory, Achyuta, the infallible one. I stand firm, my doubts dispelled. I will do as you say.
- 74Sanjaya said: So I heard this wondrous dialogue between Vasudeva and the great-souled Arjuna, which makes the hair stand on end.
- 75By the grace of Vyasa I heard this supreme and secret Yoga, spoken in person by Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, himself.
- 76O King, recalling again and again this wondrous, sacred dialogue between Keshava, slayer of the demon Keshi, and Arjuna, I rejoice over and over.
- 77And recalling again and again that most wonderful form of Krishna, O King, I am struck with great wonder, and I rejoice over and over.
- 78Where Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, is, and where Arjuna, the wielder of the bow, is, there is fortune, victory, prosperity, and unfailing right conduct. This is my conviction.