Take Meera, a clerk in a school office, after a very hard month. Every day brings files, complaints and other people's hurry, a senior is unfair, and she is tired in a way that a weekend does not fix. One evening she says to herself: "I want to leave everything and go to the hills. That is where peace must be."
Many people feel this. Is the thought right? Must you quit your work to find peace?
The Gita answers plainly. No. Both paths, the quiet life of giving up and the life of carrying on, can lead to the highest good, but carrying on with a loose grip is the better way for most of us (Gita 5.2). What has to be left is not the work. It is the clinging.
What did Arjuna ask?
Arjuna asked the same question in a larger form. At times Lord Krishna had praised giving up action, and at times the yoga of action. So Arjuna asked which of the two is better for him, and asked for one clear answer (Gita 5.1). He wanted to know whether to leave the field or stay and act.
It is a question all of us ask. Either we give up everything, or we keep everything going. Is there a way between the two? That is what Arjuna wants to know.
What did the Lord answer?
संन्यासः कर्मयोगश्च निःश्रेयसकरावुभौ ।
तयोस्तु कर्मसंन्यासात्कर्मयोगो विशिष्यते ॥ ५.२ ॥
The Blessed Lord said: Both renunciation and Karma Yoga lead to the highest spiritual good. However, of the two, Karma Yoga is considered superior to the renunciation of action.
Both bring the highest good, and of the two, the yoga of action is better than giving up action. The Lord does not say that the quiet life is wrong. He says that both reach the goal, and that for the person on the road, carrying on with a free mind is the better way.
Why better? The next sections answer that. In short: the looseness that you learn in the midst of work goes with you everywhere.
Who is a real renunciate?
निर्द्वन्द्वो हि महाबाहो सुखं बन्धात्प्रमुच्यते ॥ ५.३ ॥
O mighty-armed Arjuna, the person who neither hates nor craves anything should be understood as a true and constant renunciate. One who rises above the dualities of life becomes free from worldly bondage with ease.
The one who neither hates nor craves anything is called a constant renunciate. The test is inside. It is not a robe or a place. A person at a desk or in a kitchen can pass it, if hatred and craving no longer pull the mind around.
We tend to think a renunciate is someone who has left home, office and shop. The Gita puts the sign elsewhere, and the test mentions no clothes, place or trade. A person at an office desk can pass it, and a person in a mountain cave can fail it.
The Lord says the same again a little later.
स संन्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः॥ ६.१॥
A person who performs their prescribed duty without depending on or being attached to the results of their actions is the true renunciate and the true yogi. Simply giving up Vedic rituals or refraining from action does not constitute genuine renunciation or yoga.
The person who does the work that is to be done without leaning on its result is the renunciate and the yogi. Someone who has only stopped working is not. So what makes a renunciate is how he holds his work, and not whether he has left it. The verse aims at the grip behind the work and not at the work.
Why is leaving not enough?
Suppose Meera really went to the hills. Would her mind change there? The mind that was restless for praise in the office will be restless for comfort on the mountain. If the grip does not go, it settles on a new thing. Sometimes it is a habit of tea, sometimes a hut of one's own, sometimes the pride of "I gave up everything." The Gita says that renunciation is hard to reach without karma yoga (Gita 5.6). The training in letting go happens in the middle of work, where there is something to let go of. There praise, fear and annoyance come up every day, and there you get a chance each time to let them pass.
Karma yoga does not mean feeling nothing. It means that whatever you feel does not spoil your work or break your peace.
That is also why the Lord says the two paths come to one goal (Gita 5.4–5). Only people who have not seen the hill say that the roads climb different mountains.
What this does not mean
It is not a slight on those who choose a quiet life. The Lord says both ways lead to the highest good (Gita 5.2). A person who has no hate and no craving is a renunciate wherever he lives.
It is not a call to work day and night. The Lord says that for one who wishes to rise in yoga, action done without clinging is the means, and for the one who has risen, inner calm becomes the means (Gita 6.3). Calm, ease and stillness are parts of this road. The mark of the risen person is freedom from clinging to the objects of the senses and to actions (Gita 6.4). The sign is the same again: no clinging.
Whether to change your job depends on your circumstances. The Gita asks you in every case to leave one thing, and that is clinging. After you leave it, your decision will be made with a calm mind.
An example
Javed has a small shop. From morning to night there are customers, credit and quarrels, and he often thinks of selling it and going far away.
For one week he tries something different. He does every task with his whole mind, whether it is weighing goods or writing accounts. Whether a customer says thank you or not, he pays no heed. If a customer says a bitter word, he lets it pass like the wind.
At the end of the week Javed is in the same shop among the same customers. The difference is that in the evening he is less tired. The goods were the same, and so was the work. He changed only one thing: he stopped asking anything of the work.
A practice for today
Choose one thing you wish to escape. Ask yourself what you are gripping in it: praise, safety, control. Do the task fully, and for once let the grip go. In the evening, notice whether any calm came.
Questions readers ask
Is it wrong to want to leave and live quietly?
No. The Lord says that both ways lead to the highest good (Gita 5.2). What matters is the mark inside: no hate and no craving (Gita 5.3). This is decided by the state of the inside, and not by the outer form.
Can I be a renunciate with a family and a job?
Yes. The Gita says that the renunciate is the one who does what is to be done without leaning on its fruit (Gita 6.1), and who neither hates nor craves (Gita 5.3). Home, family and work do not stand in the way of that state. They are the places where it is practised.
Does letting go of clinging mean not caring about the result?
No. You do the work fully, and you do it because it is worth doing (Gita 6.1). What goes is the grip that rests on the outcome. Care, effort and devotion to the work stay.
How soon will I feel peace?
The Gita says that the thoughtful person set in karma yoga soon reaches it (Gita 5.6). The beginning is quick as well. On the day you loosen your hold on one task, that much calm is already yours.
Go deeper
For the same verses taken one by one, see the detailed reading. For the close reading with the commentators and the objections, see the deeper reading. The next topic, Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action, looks at what the two words mean in the last chapter of the Gita.