KARMA YOGA AND KARMA SANYᾹSA (The Bhagavat Gita Perspective)

Abstract

Our practical life is a life of action. Actions are performed in accordance with contextual reality. The context is the real situation we ever confront with while doing any action. One act must. But how to act is a question of skill or art of performing our assigned action. This is called in the Bhagavat Gitā as “Yoga Karmesu Kousalam”. The skill of performing an action is Karma yoga. The skill is doing an action in the sense of duty and without the sense of agency, doing an action with a sense of surrender before the divinity and without the sense of ego. Attachment to karma leads to bondage. Attachment to the results of karma leads to greater bondage. Hence one should be free from both the attachment of karma and the consequences thereof. This is known as “Renunciation in action."

Keywords - Renunciation of action, Renunciation in action, Karma yoga, Bhagavat Gitā, Karma Sanyasā.