kāryam ityeva yatkarma niyataṁ kriyate’rjuna | saṅgaṁ tyaktvā phalaṁ caiva sa tyāgaḥ sāttviko mataḥ ||18.9||
“It is to be done,” thinking thus when only the enjoined karma is done, giving up attachment and result, Arjuna! It is considered to be a sāttvika renunciation.
niyataṁ karma is karma to be done necessarily, not optionally. This includes all duties, both scriptural - vaidika and secular - laukika. And for those karma to be sāttvika, they must be done with the attitude “it is to be done - kāryam iti” and giving up attachment to the very action and its result - saṅgaṁ tyaktvā phalaṁ caiva. This is sāttvika-tyāga which is phala-tyāga - giving up the result of actions.
It was said in the beginning that giving up is three-fold, two of them are karma-tyāga - renunciation of karma, and this one is phala-tyāga - renunciation of the results of the action. Since renunciation is common in all of them, this amounts to praise giving up the result of action. The idea is, it is better to keep doing karma and give up karma-phala as a karma-yogī, rather than giving up karma without proper attitude as a formal sannyāsī.
Next verse, Lord Krsna shows the order of one’s spiritual growth.
na dveṣṭyakuśalaṁ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate | tyāgī sattvasamāviṣṭo medhāvī chinnasaṁśayaḥ ||18.10||
The renunciate (of the results of actions), (being) the one who is endowed with a pure mind, (thereafter being) the one who has discriminative knowledge and whose doubts are gone, does not despise unpleasant (to be done) karma, nor does he cling to auspicious karma.
tyāgī - one who gives up the results of action (karma-yogī), he will gain purity of mind. Because of that pure mind, he is called sattvasamāviṣṭa - one whose mind endowed with sattva, so that he has the capacity to do ātmā-anātma-viveka - discrimination between self and non-self. When he has that discrimination, he is called medhāvī - one who has ātmajñāna. Once he has the self-knowledge, he becomes chinnasaṁśayaḥ - the one whose doubts are gone. The doubts are many, some of them are:
- whether I - ātmā is free from time or time bound, nitya or anitya.
- whether this body-mind-senses is real or not real, satya or mithya.
- whether my nature is of fullness or sorrow, ānanda or dukha.
- whether I - ātmā is doer and enjoyer or not, kartā and bhoktā or akartā and abhoktā.
Doubt is born only of ignorance. This is said in the Mundakopanisad 2.2.9 “bhidyate hrdayagranthih chidyante sarva-samśayah ksīyante cāsya karmāni tasmin drste parāvare - the knot of the heart is resolved, all doubts are gone and all karma are destroyed in this non-dual vision.”
The knot of the heart is a technical term for avidya-kāma-karma, because of ignorance, therefore desire and then actions and its result. Thus there is perpetuation of samsāra. How can one get out of it? First, one neutralises all kāma - desire by karma-yoga attitude, thereby taking care of karma itself at that level. Then with this preparation, by enquiry into ātmā, he eliminates ignorance, thereby this three stranded knot called hrdya-granthi gets resolved - bhidyate, and all doubts cleared away - chidyante sarvasamśayah. At that time all karma also fall apart - ksīyante cāsya karmāni, because there is no individual to sustain them. Therefore he does not despise karma that is not auspicious (all karma is not auspicious for one who wants moksa since they give rise to another body) - na dveṣṭyakuśalaṁ karma - formal sannyāsī. Further kuśale nānuṣajjate - he does not cling to auspicious karma (nitya-naimittika-karma) which is done for the sake of moksa - karmayogī. Previously he had a certain commitment to that karma, but now he is no longer bound to it. He may do, but he doesn’t adhere to it with a clinging attachment. He has got the result of either sannyāsī or karma-yogī, which is sarva-karma-sannyāsa.
We have seen this before in gītā 5.3 - a sannyāsī is to be known as the one who does not have hatred or longing. He is neither after something nor repelled by something. This is what is said here again. Thus the culmination of karma-yoga is real sannyāsa.
When does this happen? When one has the knowledge that brahman, which is both cause and effect of this entire creation is ātmā - myself - tasmin drste parāvare. The means for moksa is nothing but gaining a clear knowledge of ātma. Karma-yoga is presented here as a means in sequence - kramena.
Thus, this verse told that the purpose of karma-yoga is moksa. What about the purpose of the lifestyle of sannyāsa? That is also moksa. Gītā 5.5 - the one who sees the lifestyle of sannyāsa and karma-yoga as one, he sees; he sees the truth of both of them.