Spiritually, as the Self, everyone of us is All-full and Perfect. Due to our ‘ignorance’of this spiritual experience, we entertain in our intellect unending desires, each of them being our own intellect’s attempt to fulfil itself! It is very well-known that we desire things that are not already with us in full, or in a satisfying quantity. As the desires in us, so are our thoughts; thoughts are the disturbances created in our mental zone by our desires. At every moment, the texture and quality of our thoughts are directly conditioned and controlled by our desires. Thoughts in an individual, expressed in the outer world-of-objects, become his actions; actions are nothing other than the actor’s thoughts projected and expressed in the world. Thus, in this chain-of-‘ignorance,’ constituted of desires, thoughts, and actions, each one of us is caught and bound.

If we observe them a little more closely, we find that these are not so many different factors, but are, in fact, different expressions of one and the same spiritual IGNORANCE. This ignorance (Avidya), when it functions in the intellect, expresses itself as DESIRES. When the desires, which are nothing other than the ‘ignorance,’ function in the mental zone, they express themselves as THOUGHTS. These thoughts, when they express in the outer world, become ACTIONS. Naturally, therefore, if the Supreme can be defined as “the experience beyond ignorance,” it must necessarily be true that the Self is “the State of “DESIRELESS-NESS” or “the Condition of THOUGHTLESS-NESS” or “the Life of ACTIONLESS-NESS.”

By mere ‘renunciation of action’ (Samnyasa) no one attains Perfection. Running away from life is not the way to reach the highest goal of evolution. Arjuna’s intention, you may remember, was to run away from the war-front, and, therefore, this misguided Hindu was to be re-educated in the right understanding of the immortal culture of the Vedas. For this purpose was the Divine Song given out by Krishna.

Through action, to a purification of the inner instrument, applying which the seeker walks the ‘Path-of-Knowledge’ to reach ultimately the spiritual destination of self-development as indicated in this stanza. Hence it has been often quoted by all great writers on Hinduism.

FOR WHAT REASON, THEN, DOES A PERSON NOT ATTAIN PERFECTION THAT IS FREE FROM ACTIVITIES BY MERE RENUNCIATION, UNACCOMPANIED BY KNOWLEDGE? — THE REASON THUS ASKED FOR IS GIVEN AS FOLLOWS:

Purusah, a person; na does not; asnute, attain; naiskarmyam, freedom from action, the state of being free from action, steadfastness in the Yoga of Knowledge, i.e. the state of abiding in one’s own Self which is free from action; anarambhat, by abstaining; karmanam, from actions-by the non-performance of actions such as sacrifices etc. which are or were performed in the present or past lives, which are the causes of the purification of the mind by way of attenuating the sins incurred, and which, by being the cause of that (purification), become the source of steadfastness in Knowledge through the generation of Knowledge, as stated in the Smrti (text), ‘Knowledge arises in a person from the attenuation of sinful acts’ [the whole verse is: Jnanam utpadyate pumsamksayatpapasya karmanah; Yathadarsatalaprakhye pasyatyatmanamatmani. ‘Knowledge arises…acts. One sees the Self in oneself as does one (see oneself) in a cleaned surface of a mirror’.-Tr.] (Mbh. Sa. 204.8). This is the import. From the statement that one does not attain freedom from action by abstaining from actions, it may be concluded that one attains freedom from action by following the opposite course of performing actions. What, again, is the reason that one does not attain freedom from action by abstaining from actions? The answer is: Because performing actions is itself a means to freedom from action. Indeed, there can be no attainment of an end without (its) means. And Karma-yoga is the means to the Yoga of Knowledge characterized by freedom from action, because it has been so established in the Upanisads and here as well. As for the Upanisads, it has been shown in the texts, ‘The Brahmanas seek to know It through the study of the Vedas, sacrifices, (charity, and austerity consisting in a dispassionate enjoyment of sense-objects)’ (Br. 4.4.22), etc. whch deal with the means of realizing the goal of Knowledge under discussion, viz the Realm of the Self, that the Yoga of Karma is a means to the Yoga of Knowledge . And even here (in the Gita), the Lord will established that, ‘But, O mighty-armed one, renunciation is hard to attain without (Karma-)yoga’ (5.6); ‘By giving up attachment, the yogis undertake work…for the purification of themselves’ (5.11); ‘Sacrifice, charity and austerity are verily the purifiers of the wise’ (18.5), etc.

Objection: Is it not that in such texts as-‘Extending to all creatures immunity from fear’ (Na. Par. 5.43), (one should take recourse to freedom from action)-, it is shown that attainment of freedom from action follows even from the renunciation of obligatory duties? And in the world, too, it is a better known fact that freedom from action follows abstention from actions. Hence also arises the question, ‘Why should one who desires freedom from action undertake action?’

Reply: Therefore the Lord said: Na ca, nor; samadhi-gacchati, does he attain; siddhim, fulfilment steadfastness in the Yoga of Knowledge, characterized by freedom from action; sannyasanat eva, merely through renunciation-even from the mere renunciation of actions which is devoid of Knowledge. What, again, is the reason that by the mere giving up of actions which is not accompanied with Knowledge, a person does not attain fulfulment in the form of freedom from actions? To this query seeking to know the cause, the Lord says: