250. Freedom From Karma

Krishna says, “Those whose intellect (buddhi) is not attached everywhere (sarvatra), have conquered the self, and are free from desires through renunciation attain the perfection of ‘freedom from karma’ (naishkarmya-siddhi)” (18.49). Earlier, it was made clear that every karma (action) carries a blemish (18.48). At the same time, there is no escape from karma as our survival itself becomes impossible without performing karmas (3.8). In this seemingly paradoxical context, this verse gives three paths to attain freedom from karma-bandhan (bondage of action).

The first path is the non-attachment of intellect everywhere. Our intellect is habitual of getting attached to multiple things, people and situations. For each attachment, we have different justifications, yardsticks and thought process, making us polypsychic. It is a journey of moving from multiple attachments to one attachment. The final stage is not to have any attachment or detachment as both are the same at the core. Krishna termed this as veet-raag which is beyond raag and viraag (4.10); anaasakti which is beyond aasakti and virakti.

The second one is conquering the self. Krishna earlier called them sthita-prajna (stoic) (2.56) and also says that we are our friend as well as our own enemy (6.5). If we conquer ourselves, we become friends to ourselves and no longer depend on external sensual pleasures. Otherwise, our undisciplined self becomes our worst enemy.

The third is the renunciation. So much is said about renunciation in the Bhagavad Gita. While Arjuna was trying to renounce karma of participating in the war, Krishna says we should renounce hatred and desires while performing karmas but not karmas itself (5.3).

Krishna earlier cautioned that even the wise are confounded about the subtleties of karma and akarma (4.16). In this verse, he gives the path of non-attachment, conquering self and renunciation to attain freedom from karma. This is nothing but akarma or doing nothing while performing karma.