99. Renounce Hatred, not Karma

Out of ignorance, one tends to grab material possessions and performs motivated actions with ahankaar. When the first ray of awareness sets in, one starts thinking of renunciation like Arjuna is doing here. The confusion lies in what to renounce. Our usual tendency is to label all karmas (actions) as good or bad and we want to drop undesirable karmas. Instead, we should renounce our tendency of labelling rather than our external karmas. In fact, there is no real renunciation of karmas as we renounce one karma and end up doing another one under the influence of our gunas.

On the other hand, Krishna presents a complete paradigm shift regarding renunciation and says that one should always be a nitya-sannyasi (perpetual renunciant), i.e. one who neither hates nor desires; is free from the pairs of opposites (dwandwa-atheeth) and is liberated from all entanglements (5.3). Renouncing hatred is the first step in this direction. This could be towards anything that goes against our beliefs like religion, caste or nationality. Hatred could be towards our profession, people or the way of things around us. It is seeing the oneness in apparent contradictions. A nitya-sannyasi renounces desire along with hatred.

Krishna describes forgiveness as a quality that arises from Him (10.4) and as one of the treasures of a divinely inclined person (16.3). Forgiveness is the most effective antidote to hatred. It requires courage, awareness, and compassion to forgive another person. It also arises from the realisation that no one is the ultimate karta (doer) in this world, and therefore there is no need to blame others for the hurt they may have caused us. Forgiveness dissolves hatred and brings peace.

Krishna further says, “That state which is reached by the sankhya is also reached by the yogi. He has truth who beholds as one both sankhya (awareness) and yoga (5.5). But renunciation is hard to attain without actions; a sage, well established in yoga quickly attains Brahma” (5.6).

Karmas are like barometers to help us gauge how much hatred and desire we carry. Hence, Krishna encourages performing unmotivated karmas rather than renouncing them.


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