236. Tyagi


Krishna defines renunciant (tyagi) and says, "Those who neither avoid akushala (disagreeable or miserable) action nor attached to kushala (agreeable or well-being) action are tyagi. Pervaded by purity, being intelligent (methavi) he is free from doubts (sansaya-rahit)" (18.10). 

We are all motivated to perform kushala karmas (actions) and avoid akusala ones. We tend to do karmas which are for the well-being of the self, family, organization or society. Though this looks logical, it is the result of the division of karmas as akushala and kushala. Tyagi is the one for whom this internal division disappears. Krishna calls them intelligent and in one way, dropping the internal division can be termed as intelligence. Their doubts also disappear when oneness descends with the end of division. As a result, the tyagi neither hates nor gets attached to any actions. 

Krishna further says, "It is impossible for the embodied beings to give up activities totally. But those who relinquish the fruits of their actions are called tyagi (18.11). The threefold fruits of actions -pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed accrues to non-relinquishers but never to the tyagi here or hereafter" (18.12). 

The fundamental truth of existence is that it is impossible for the embodied beings to give up activities as our survival itself depends on numerous activities like eating and breathing. Krishna gave the path of relinquishing karmaphal (fruits of action) and He reiterates this on many occasions.

What happens if one doesn't detach from Karmaphal? Krishna says threefold karmaphal accrues to those who long for it, maybe after the lapse of time, but not for tyagi. It is our attachment that makes a karmaphal pleasant or unpleasant. Tyagi is the one who drops this attachment and transcends polarities to be dwanda-ateeth (one who transcended dulaties).

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