Bhagavad Gita 5.6 संन्यासस्तु महाबाहो दुःखमाप्तुमयोगतः

Bhagavad Gita 5.6 — word by word

Explanation

But renunciation, O mighty-armed, is hard to attain without the yoga of action. The sage who is engaged in yoga reaches Brahman before long. Selfless action prepares the mind; without it, giving up action tends to be outward only. Work done in the right spirit is the training ground.

Krishna explains why he called karma yoga superior in 5.2. Shankara reads it as: true renunciation, which rests on knowledge, is difficult without first purifying the mind through selfless work; the purified sage then quickly attains Brahman. Ramanuja reads Brahman here as the pure self, which the karma yogi realises quickly and safely. The verse is often cited by teachers who warn against premature withdrawal from the world, since a mind not yet settled carries its restlessness into the forest or the monastery.

भावार्थ

हे महाबाहो, कर्मयोग के बिना संन्यास प्राप्त होना कठिन है; कर्मयोग से युक्त मुनि शीघ्र ही ब्रह्म को प्राप्त हो जाता है। निष्काम कर्म से मन शुद्ध होता है, तभी सच्चा त्याग सम्भव होता है।

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