Chapter 5: Karma Sannyāsa Yoga – Yoga of Inner Renunciation: Verse 13
सर्वकर्माणि मनसा सन्न्यस्यास्ते सुखं वशी ।
नवद्वारे पुरे देही नैव कुर्वन्न कारयन् ॥
sarvakarmāṇi manasā sannyasyāste sukhaṃ vaśī
nava-dvāre pure dehī naiva kurvan-na kārayan – 5.13
The self-controlled, having renounced all actions mentally, rests comfortably as the Soul in the nine-gated city, namely the body, virtually neither acting nor causing another to act.
Chapter 5: Karma Sannyāsa Yoga – Yoga of Inner Renunciation - Verse 13
Ma Gurupriya
Krishna presents the renunciate’s insight as a contrast to the Yogi’s. The Knower is given to dispossessing not the results but the actions themselves. He is the Soul, and hence does not act at all. Thus he has sufficient inspiration to renounce all actions. He does this by ascribing all actions to their respective senses and the body.
Krishna describes the body as a nine-gated city. Eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, excretory and reproductive organs together form these gates.
To live and act with the consciousness that one does not act is a point Krishna has explained earlier (5.8, 9). The same effect is wrought here too, but by offering all actions as sacrifice to their very source, and feeling completely non-active and free at heart. The Knower feels he does not act; also that he does not cause another to act. It is with this knowledge that Krishna asked Arjuna to fight (2.18, 21, 37, 38).
