Since ancient times in India, there have been individuals and groups that place high value on renunciation (sannyāsa) as the basis for spiritual elevation. As a practice, this may take a variety of forms and degrees of extremity. In this chapter, Krishna corrects a misunderstanding about sannyāsa: not external lifestyle (such as endurance of extreme voluntary austerities), but rather, it is internal attitude and disposition, which constitutes real sannyāsa. And the heart of renunciation, Krishna concludes, is to know and acknowledge bhagavān, the supreme, as the actual “enjoyer” of all that is. To live in this attitude of renunciation is the yoga of renunciation.
As in the beginning of Chapter 3, again in the beginning of Chapter 5 Arjuna confesses confusion over Krishna’s statements thus far. Should he renounce action altogether, or should he do action-yoga?
Essentially, Krishna’s answer is that this is a false dichotomy. Renouncing, by itself, without yoga, brings trouble, whereas a sage engaged in yoga quickly achieves the Absolute spirit (brahman, 5.7). In that state, the yogī realizes, “I do nothing at all,” and while the yogī’s body functions in so many ways—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing, speaking, releasing, grasping, or blinking—the yogī can sustain the understanding that all these bodily functions are merely the interactions of the senses with sense objects (5.8-9).
Krishna compares the physical body, with its orifices, to a city with nine gates; it is a happy resident of this city-body who mentally renounces all actions (5.13). Such a learned person possesses equal vision with regard to all other beings, whether they be animal or human, “high” or “low” by conventional designation (5.18). This discerning person finds no pleasure in enjoyments arising from sense contact, knowing that they are only sources of misery (5.22).
What does the sannyāsa-yogī achieve by realizing his or her self beyond the body and mind? Krishna uses an interesting phrase to describe this state, namely, “nirvāṇa-in-brahman”. The term nirvāṇa is usually found in Buddhist writings, where it refers to the state of perfection reached upon attaining Buddhahood. However, here nirvāṇa is linked with the term brahman, which the Upaniṣads—several important texts of philosophical deliberation associated with the Vedas—identify as the Absolute spirit, which is characterised as atemporal, all-knowing (conscious), and all-blissful. In this state, worldly life is transcended by engagement in spirit. In this state, one is able to recognize and comprehend how it is that brahman, which Krishna identifies as himself, is the reservoir of joy, the lord of all worlds, and the dear friend of all beings. This recognition is the cause of real peace (5.29). Here it may be interesting to note that one meaning of sannyāsa is “a deposit, trust,” as in a financial activity. Taking this meaning, sannyāsa-yoga is the act of placing full trust in the higher reality, beyond the limited, temporal sphere that one experiences with the temporal body and mind.
To compare sannyāsa-yoga with the classical Yoga system of Patañjali (Yogasūtra), the latter includes aparigraha—nonpossessiveness—as one of five aspects of the first stage of yoga practice, yama. Yama means “restraint,” and it refers to practices of self-restraint as a basic principle of ethics. Thus sannyāsa-yoga has an important social dimension which is highly conducive for the realization of social harmony.