Krishna’s exhortation here is to renounce all activities mentally, as all actions are done by the body, senses, mind, intelligence and ego alone, and not by the ‘I’, the Self. The ‘I’ remains still and non-acting, come what may. Knowing this truth, where is the question for the knower or Yogi to own up any activity, external or internal at all?

Dear and blessed souls:

Harih Om Tat Sat.

Krishna is emphasizing non-doership (akartṛtva) and hence unaffectedness with regard to all activities and interactions one does or pursues.

Be like lotus in water

First, says Krishna, the seeker should offer all activities to the supreme Brahman, (brahmaṇi karmāṇi ādhāya) (5.10). Why and how? Because, the entire creational display, called the world, is a superimposition by Brahman on itself. To be able to offer all activities like this, one should abandon his delusional clinging (saṅga) towards whatever actions he does in any manner. The truth is that none of the actions truly affects or involves the doer the least. All actions are like water not affecting the least the lotus leaf, which grows in and floats on water. Be like such a lotus plant. Then you will not be tainted by any note of sinfulness at all. What an exemplary safety for the seeker and the Knower!

That animating the body is different from body

The secret lies in mind’s expansion and intellect’s clarity about human personality. In essence, that which animates and activates the pāñca-bhautika body is unlike the body, and hence not affected by any action or interaction at all. This safety is not to be sought and gained, but is already inbuilt in our personality itself, right from the very beginning of its formation in the mother’s womb. One has to rightly recognize this fact; and such recognition will render one free!

Whenever Krishna speaks about sannyasa, it is founded upon the fact that our personality, at its very core, is ‘still’ and hence no action ever transpires there, nor any consequence befalls on it at all. Whether we know about this truth or not, this is so. Fire is hot, whether you recognize it or not. All that the sadhaka has to do is to proceed in a manner that conforms to this reality. The yoga and sannyasa definitions Krishna gives, are on this basis. Before realizing the truth in due time, the seeker must go ahead orienting his attitude accordingly.

Rendering activities as purificatory

Krishna now explains (5.11) how those given to Karma-yoga take to activity, but during the activity throughout they must understand and feel that the instruments called the body, senses, mind and intelligence are alone involved in the process, not their core personality. This knowledge facilitates their eschewing all delusional clinging to activities as a whole. Not only that, they realize that these activities are for purifying themselves, their psycho-intellectual personality.

None possesses anything

It is clinging that makes one possessive about an act. Really speaking, no act is ever any one’s possession. All activities are enabled by Nature. It is Nature itself that has provided the instruments to perform activities. Our body, senses, mind and intelligence are all mere instruments shaped by Nature. These together with the activities they perform are all entirely Nature’s. Never interfere in this ‘niyati’ – its structure, its animation or activation. None can or need claim any ownership or identity anywhere, any time. The world, nay the entire creational display, is Brahman’s. Brahman alone owns the creation – not any individual person. Nothing of creation ever belongs to any person! Nothing is factually there. For, Brahman is omnipresent. Its omnipresence will not, as mentioned earlier, allow any second factor to be present at all. There is no one as an independent entity. And hence no action is also possible. The world including one’s body, intelligence, mind and senses are all Nature’s alone. And everything is but a display, a mere fictitious manifestation, not a real entity at all.

Let all actions generate purity

In other words, it is like the dream the sleeper experiences. This means the visible world is a dreamy manifestation, a mere display. Just as the entire dream is unreal, so too nothing done or got herein has any real value or effect. Everything is seemingly done, not really, factually. Till this truth is known, therefore, the seeker can think that actions done are only by Nature’s own instruments. Neither is he any of them, nor his intelligence, mind and senses, the body aggregate, are. What understands is not he, the ‘I’, but the intelligence alone. What thinks is the mind. Likewise, he is not the senses too. He is quite distinct, not involved in anything at all.

Activities underscored by such evaluation, assessment, will bring the necessary purity to his whole being. Such purity alone, so far as he is concerned, is the sole purpose of acting and activities. See, the entire viewpoint becomes different. No psycho-intellectual involvement ever arises in actions. Let them all generate purity, if at all, which is welcome.

At the same time, each act will have its expected or desired result, fruition. But neither the act nor the result will involve or bind the ‘actor’ the least. What a clever way of acting as well as facing its seeming results!

Message from the unprecedented Mahabharata war!

Nothing in the visible world is denied or condemned. But even a bit of anything does not cause any discomfort, agitation or binding any time the least. Verily a dexterous way of acting and interacting while living! One has to bend his head in total acceptance before such an exposition of Krishna, that too while holding the reins of four horses of a chariot mastered by the illustrious fighter Arjuna come to fight the unprecedented Mahabharata war!

If this philosophy is applicable to such a colossal war, where 4.5 million warriors are arrayed with bow and arrow, each ready to discharge arrows against the opposite camp, can you not apply it far more dedicatedly to any and all of your daily activities pursued for individual, familial or societal reasons? Think well and answer.

Abandon saṅga to actions – not to objective results

In the next verse (5.12), Krishna contrasts the yogi, the spiritually integrated one, and another disoriented and hence fragmented in his vision, depending on and upholding his desire every time. The yogically integrated sadhaka abandons the result of all karmas easily. As a result, he gains peacefulness born of steadfastness in his pursuit.

The results Krishna mentions are not the objective outcomes of your activity, instead they are the desirable or undesirable subjective outcomes of actions. There is no question of abandoning the objective results of your actions at all. An action itself is thought, designed and executed to gain its specific fruition. There is no question of abandoning it at any time. All are propelled by Nature to be active and interactive.

Adopt this yoga and enrich the mind

If one does not care to take to yogic orientation while performing his acts, instead he acts under the grip of desirefulness, then Krishna says the outcome is quite grave. Clinging to the results, the performer gets bound to suffer various troubles, torments and afflictions. Therefore, for any one with Viveka, discrimination, there is no scope to disregard the need for adopting yoga and sublimating and enriching his mind, so that he will be able to do all kinds of activities with joy and fulfilment. And none of the acts he does will have any tormenting or binding effect at all. Remember well that Krishna is discussing the subject of renunciation, the loftiest spiritual step any seeker should earnestly aspire for.

Unravelling the supra-material, spiritual, inner bounties

Now we go to the next verse (5.13), wherein Krishna makes a very alluring proposition about how the spiritually attuned seeker or Knower will conduct his activity as a total renunciate. In other words, he remains immensely active but all his activities are co-existential with the lofty note of renunciation. Any one will wonder as to how intense activity and renunciation can go together. But this is what Krishna brings about by his unique exposition and the insights he highlights.

Thus, Krishna’s discussion assumes greater importance. Our land is as great as it is holy, in that its thinkers right from the ancient times have explored within their body and unravelled the supra-material, spiritual, plane and all the bounties it showers on the earnest thinker, seeker and Knower, to deal with his interactional life in the world.

Perceiving inaction in action

Remember, at the request and instance of Arjuna himself, Krishna began his dialogue taking up the role of the Teacher. The entire dialogue is between the Teacher and the student, a point all Gita readers should never fail to distinctly remember.

Krishna’s exhortation here is to renounce all activities mentally, as all actions are done by the body, senses, mind, intelligence and ego alone, and not by the ‘I’, the Self. The ‘I’ remains still and non-acting, come what may. Knowing this truth, where is the question for the knower or Yogi to own up any activity, external or internal at all? It is the practice of karmaṇi akarma yaḥ paśyet (4.18) – perceiving inaction in action – Krishna described earlier. If the Self does not act at all, it cannot either, where is the question of any activity crediting or discrediting oneself?

The body – a nine-gated city

This means the seeker disowning all his actions, which is the sole essence of renunciation. “Do this”, says Krishna, “O Arjuna! And live with comfort and poise in the body, which is verily a nine-gated city”. Eyes, ears, nose (each with two holes), mouth, anus and genital constitute the nine gates. Treat the body as the ‘nine-gated-city’ and live there well, in a way with basic dis-concern, at the same time with all interest and joy in whatever you do, big or small. Nothing belongs to you and yet all these are available for your use. What a wonderful insight and vision, to live in the world!