Chapter 18 - Verse 9

Abandoning etc. :—These words of the Lord form, as we have said, the authority which declares that obligatory (nitya) works produce fruits.

Or thus :—An ignorant man may even suppose that though the fruits of obligatory works are not declared in the Scripture, the obligatory works, when performed, do produce their fruits for the doer in the form of self-regeneration, or by way of warding off pratyavaya or the sin of non-performance. But even this supposition is prevented by the words “abandoning the fruits.” Hence the appropriateness. That abandonment : the abandoning of all attachment for, and of the fruits of, obligatory works.

(Objection):—It is the threefold abandonment of works—referred to as ‘samnyasa’ (xviii. 7)—that forms the subject of the present section (xviii. 4, etc.). Out of the three, the Rajasic and Tamasic (sorts of abandonment of works) have been treated of. How is it that the abandonment of attachment and of the fruits of works is spoken of as the third? It is something like saying, Three Brāhmaṇas have come;

two of them are proficient in shadangas or the six auxiliary sciences, and the third is a Kṣatriya."

(Answer):—No such objection can be raised here; for, the object of this section is to praise (the abandonment of the fruits of works, as compared with the abandonment of works, i.e., by comparing the two abandonments), both being alike abandonments. In fact the abandonment of works and the abandonment of desire for the fruits do agree in so far as they alike imply abandonment. Accordingly, by despising the two sorts of the abandonment of works, as Rajasic and Tamasic abandonments, the abandonment of desire for the fruits of the works is praised as being the Sattvic abandonment, in the words ’that abandonment is deemed to be Sattvic.'

From Renunciation in works to Renunciation of all works.

When the man who is qualified for (Karma-Yoga) performs obligatory works without attachment and without a longing for results, his inner sense (antah-karana) unsoiled by desire for results and regenerated by (the performance of) obligatory works, becomes pure. When pure and tranquil, the inner sense is fit for contemplation of the Self. Now, with a view to teach how the man whose inner sense has been purified by the performance of obligatory works and who is prepared to acquire the Self-knowledge may gradually attain to jnana-nishtha or devotion in knowledge, the Lord proceeds as follows :