Renunciation

One who has withdrawn all their senses into the Self, and who has not caused pain to any creature except as permitted by the scriptures, conducts themselves in this way throughout their life. They reach the World of Brahman after death and do not return.

The sages, united with pure reason, renounce the results of their actions and, liberated from the cycle of birth, they attain a state of bliss.

Having examined the worlds earned through action and seen that the uncreated cannot be obtained through mere deeds, a seeker of truth should approach a teacher who is learned in the scriptures and grounded in Brahman, bearing fuel in hand as a sign of discipleship.

One whose intellect is unattached everywhere, who has conquered the self and is free of craving — through renunciation that person attains the supreme perfection of actionlessness.

For one who bears a body, it is not possible to abandon action entirely; but the one who relinquishes the fruits of action — that person alone is truly called a renunciant.

When obligatory duty is performed simply because it must be done, O Arjuna, with attachment and all longing for fruits relinquished — that renunciation is held to be sattvic.

The Blessed Lord said: The sages understand sannyasa as the setting aside of desire-driven actions; the discerning ones declare tyaga to be the relinquishment of the fruits of all actions.

Arjuna said: O mighty-armed one, O Hrishikesha, O slayer of Keshi — I wish to know separately the true nature of renunciation and of relinquishment.

Better than practice is knowledge; better than knowledge is meditation; better than meditation is the renunciation of the fruits of action — from such renunciation, peace immediately follows.

A person does not achieve freedom from action by not beginning actions, nor does one attain perfection simply by renunciation alone.

That person who walks through life having abandoned all desires, free of longing, without possessiveness, and without ego — attains peace.

All the blessed regions that belong to the gods can be obtained through penance. Penance is the root of great happiness. Those who practice severe penance and give up their bodies can attain the status of gods.

Those ascetics who are firmly grounded in the knowledge of Vedanta, whose beings are purified through the yoga of renunciation—at the final dissolution, dwelling in the worlds of Brahman, they are all fully liberated into supreme immortality.

For those who do not renounce, the threefold fruit of action — the undesired, the desired, and the mixed — accrues after death; but for those who renounce, it accrues never.

The true renunciant, filled with sattva and good understanding, with doubts cut away, neither hates unwelcome work nor clings to welcome work.

One who gives up action calling it painful, out of fear of bodily hardship — such a person performs rajasic renunciation and will not obtain the fruit of true renunciation.

To renounce one's obligatory duty is not appropriate; to abandon it through delusion is declared to be renunciation in the mode of darkness.

Hear My definitive judgment in this matter of relinquishment, O best of the Bharatas; O tiger among men, relinquishment is declared to be of three kinds.

One who is the same in honour and dishonour, the same toward the side of friend or foe, who has relinquished all undertakings — that one is said to have transcended the qualities.

One who is without expectation, pure, capable, impartial, free from distress, and who has given up all personal enterprises — such a devotee of mine is dear to me.