236. Tyagi

Krishna defines a renunciant (tyagi) and says, “Those who neither avoid akushala (disagreeable or miserable) action nor are attached to kushala (agreeable or well-being) action are tyagi. Pervaded by purity, being intelligent (medhavi), 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 perform karmas that promote 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. A 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 true intelligence. With the dissolution of division, oneness arises, and their doubts disappear. 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 the embodied beings can’t give up activities as our survival itself depends on numerous activities like eating and breathing. Krishna gives the path of relinquishing karma-phal (fruits of action), and He reiterates this on many occasions.

What happens if one doesn’t detach from karma-phal? Krishna says threefold karma-phal accrues to those who long for it, perhaps after the lapse of time, but not to the tyagi. It is our attachment that makes a karma-phal pleasant or unpleasant. A tyagi is the one who drops this attachment and transcends polarities to become dwanda-atheeth (one who transcended dulaties).