Chapter 6, Verse 1
श्रीभगवानुवाच | अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः | स संन्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः ||६-१||
śrībhagavānuvāca . anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṃ kāryaṃ karma karoti yaḥ . sa saṃnyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnirna cākriyaḥ ||6-1||
Meaning
6.1 The Blessed Lord said He who performs his bounden duty without depending on the fruits of his actions he is a Sannyasi and a Yogi; not he who is without fire and without action.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna opens the sixth chapter by redefining two words that the world easily misunderstands: sannyasi (renunciate) and yogi. True renunciation, he says, is not the abandonment of work or the ritual fires (niragni), nor mere physical inaction (akriya). It is the inner act of performing one's kaarya-karma — the duty that ought to be done — while remaining anaashrita, unsupported by craving for results.
This is the heart of karma-yoga restated at a deeper level. The hermit who flees responsibility but still nurses desire is no renunciate; the householder who acts fully yet releases attachment to outcome is both renunciate and yogi at once. Krishna thus dissolves the false opposition between the active life and the spiritual life. Renunciation lives in the quality of the mind behind the action, not in the absence of action.
💡 Key Takeaway
Do your duty wholeheartedly while letting go of attachment to its results — that, not withdrawal from work, is real renunciation.
Related Verses
यं संन्यासमिति प्राहुर्योगं तं विद्धि पाण्डव | न ह्यसंन्यस्तसङ्कल्पो योगी भवति कश्चन ||६-२||
yaṃ saṃnyāsamiti prāhuryogaṃ taṃ viddhi pāṇḍava . na hyasaṃnyastasaṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana ||6-2||
6.2 Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga to be that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced thoughts.
यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते | सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते ||६-४||
yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasvanuṣajjate . sarvasaṅkalpasaṃnyāsī yogārūḍhastadocyate ||6-4||
6.4 When a man is not attached to the sense-objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to Yoga.
सङ्कल्पप्रभवान्कामांस्त्यक्त्वा सर्वानशेषतः | मनसैवेन्द्रियग्रामं विनियम्य समन्ततः ||६-२४||
saṅkalpaprabhavānkāmāṃstyaktvā sarvānaśeṣataḥ . manasaivendriyagrāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ ||6-24||
6.24 Abandoning without reserve all desires born of Sankalpa (thought and imagination) and completely restraining the whole group of the senses by the mind from all sides.