“Totally giving up all desire-prompted activities” is RENUNCIATION, and ABANDONMENT is “giving up of all anxieties for enjoying the fruits-of-action.” As they stand, both of them read almost the same to the uninitiated; for, all desires are always for the fruits of our actions. Thus, “renouncing desire-motivated activity” and “renouncing our anxiety for the fruit” would read the same for those who see only their superficial suggestions.
No doubt, both mean giving up desire, but Tyaga is slightly different from Samnyasa; and yet, “abandonment” has an integral relationship with “renunciation.” Action is an effort put forth in the present, which, in its own time, will, it is hoped, fulfil itself into the desired fruit. And, the fruit is what we reap later on as a result of the present action. A desireless action, therefore, belongs to the PRESENT, while the anxiety to enjoy the fruit (desire) is a disturbance of our mind regarding a FUTURE period of time. The fruit comes after the action; the fruit is the culmination of an action undertaken in the present.
Desire and agitation bring about restlessness, and the deeper the desire, the greater is the amount of dissipation of our energies within. A dissipated man cannot execute any piece of work with steady efficiency and true ardour. Also, it is to be noticed, desire is always ordered by the ego. Elimination of the ego is at once the sublimation of the individuality and the ascension of the individual from the lower realms of consciousness to the upper-most stratum of the effulgent universal Awareness, the One Eternal God.
The tragedy of life becomes complete if a desire-ridden individual comes under the endless persecution of steady anxiety to enjoy the fruits of his actions. Fruits-of-actions belong to the FUTURE and they are always ordered by the quality and quantity of the action in the PRESENT moment, and also by the circumstances available in the chosen field of activity. Naturally, without the “Abandonment” (Tyaga) of our clinging attachment to the expected FRUITS OF OUR ACTIONS, we will not discover the full potentialities of our own personality. Without this, our activities will naturally become ineffective, and ineffective activities can never provide for us enjoyable fruits.
In short, “Renunciation” is the goal to be reached through the process of “Abandonment” of our moment-to-moment anxiety to enjoy the fruits. “Abandonment” (Tyaaga) is the means to reach the goal of “Renunciation” (Samnyasa).
Both Samnyasa and Tyaaga are disciplines in our activities. Krishna is never tired of emphasising the importance of work. Neither of these terms indicates that work should be ignored; on the other hand both of them insist that WORK WE MUST. Work, however, can gain a total transmutation by the removal of the things that clog our efficiency, and thus every piece of work can be made to yield its fullest reward. Snapping the chains that shackle us with the past and the future, and working without being hustled by anxieties or henpecked by desires, in the full freedom and inspiration of the present, is the noblest way to perform actions. To a large extent, we can say that the definition of these two terms in the Geeta is more broad-minded and tolerant than the implications of these two words as we read in the Vedic lore.
SHOULD THE ‘IGNORANT’ PERFORM WORK OR NOT?
