Karma-Saṃnyāsa Yoga

The inner renouncer — BG 5.7–5.12

BG 5.7–5.12 describes the inner renouncer — the person who has achieved the state of Karma Yoga fully. Key characteristics: "The Yogī whose mind is pure, whose self is controlled, whose senses are subdued, whose self has become the self of all beings — even though acting, is not bound" (BG 5.7). This is not physical inactivity but inner non-binding: the actions happen through the body-mind, but the self identifies as the witness-consciousness, not as the doer. BG 5.8–5.9: "While seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing, speaking, releasing, grasping, and opening and closing the eyes — the disciplined person knows: 'I do nothing at all.'"

BG 5.11: kāyena manasā buddhyā kevalair indriyair api / yoginaḥ karma kurvanti saṅgaṃ tyaktvātma-śuddhaye — "Yogīs, abandoning attachment, perform action through body, mind, intellect, and even the senses alone — for the purification of the self." Action continues; the instrument is the body-mind complex (Prakṛti); the Ātman is the witness. The purpose of action: not achievement but purification of the instrument itself.

BG 5.7–5.12. Gambhirananda (trans.), pp. 220–232.

BG 5.18–5.21 — equanimity and Brahman-realisation

Having described the equal-visioned sage in BG 5.18, Kṛṣṇa develops the state further. BG 5.19: ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṃ sāmye sthitaṃ manaḥ / nirdoṣaṃ hi samaṃ brahma tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ — "Even here [in this world], those whose minds are established in equanimity have overcome creation. Brahman is flawless and equal — therefore they are established in Brahman." The equal-visioned sage is not someone who will be liberated in the future. They are liberated now, in this body, in this world — what the tradition calls jīvanmukta (liberated while living).

BG 5.20–5.21: this person neither rejoices at pleasant things nor is averse to unpleasant things; with undeluded intelligence, knowing Brahman, the self is established in Brahman. Such a person, who contacts outer objects — pleasures — does not rejoice; and encountering pain, does not grieve. The self-sufficiency of the one established in Brahman is complete.

BG 5.18–5.21. Gambhirananda (trans.), pp. 233–240.

Śaṅkara on BG 5.1 — the superiority of Karma Yoga over mere Saṃnyāsa

Śaṅkara's Gītābhāṣya on BG 5.1 makes a careful distinction: the "renunciation" that Kṛṣṇa calls inferior to Karma Yoga is karma-saṃnyāsa in its external sense — the physical abandonment of action, becoming an ascetic without the purification of inner knowledge. Physical renunciation without inner knowledge leaves the mind as it was: still entangled with desire, aversion, and the ego. Karma Yoga, by contrast, works on the mind directly — the sustained practice of acting without ego-attachment progressively dissolves the very ego-contraction that is the root of bondage.

Śaṅkara's hierarchical reading: Karma Yoga → Jñāna Yoga, with Jñāna as the final liberating factor. The Karma Yoga of Chapters 3–5 is not the ultimate destination but the most effective means to prepare the ground for liberating knowledge. Rāmānuja disagrees: for him, Karma Yoga performed as service to Viṣṇu is itself the complete path, not merely preparatory.

BG 5.1–5.2. Śaṅkara, Gītābhāṣya (Gambhirananda trans., pp. 215–220).

BG 5.27–5.29 — the closing: pratyāhāra and the Supreme

BG 5.27–5.29 closes the chapter with a brief reference to meditation practice — the exclusion of external sensory contacts, equalising the breath through the nostrils, fixing the gaze between the eyebrows — pointing toward the practice that Chapter 6 will elaborate. This brief reference establishes the natural progression: from Karma Yoga (Ch.3–5) to Dhyāna Yoga (Ch.6). BG 5.29 ends with the goal: knowing Kṛṣṇa as the supreme Lord of all sacrifice, as the friend of all beings — one attains peace. The thread of Bhakti that will become central in Chapter 12 appears here in seed.

BG 5.27–5.29. Gambhirananda (trans.), pp. 247–250.