A devotee of Ramakrishna Paramhansa asked him “what is the central teaching of the Bhagavada Gita?” The sage replied, “If you utter the words ‘Gita’ a few times in rapid succession you begin to say ‘taagi, taagi’ and that is the essence of Gita”. Taagi means one who has renounced the word.
Indeed, renunciation is at the core of spiritual life. The literal meaning of renunciation is ‘desertion’, abandonment, rejection and denunciation. However, this is not the sense in which it is used in the Gita, Renunciation, in the Gita does not mean abandoning the duties of our everyday lived life and becoming a recluse to lead a monastic life. Nor does it mean other worldliness. It does not even mean indifference (vairagya) to the world and its affairs.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his Gita rahashya goes a step further and says that Gita, instead of teaching renunciation of any kind, preaches
Energism’ (karma yoga). Law of karma according to him is an energetic principle because “unless some karma or action has been performed it is not possible for the imperceptible to become perceptible or quality-less to become quality-full.”
He goes on to say, “No man is free from action, and that action should never be given up.” Rather one has to be busy performing actions that are aimed at sarvabhutahite ritah-promotion of welfare of all.
Tilak argues: “The Gita was not presented either as a pastime for persons tired out after living a worldly life in pursuit of selfish motives, not as a preparatory lesson for living such worldly life. “Its main purpose is to reveal, “How one should live his worldly life” and to point out our “true duty in worldly life”. That is why the Gita discourages monastic or ascetic life if the spirit of detachment is absent.
Renunciation in the Gita does not refer to renunciation of action but connotes renunciation in action. It means performing one’s duties but with a detached mind and without thought of worldly gain- devoting all action to God only. This dedication is the most important component of renunciation.
Renunciation according to Tilak means “whatever a man does must be taken to have been done by him for the purpose of sacrifice”. No action is under taken for personal gain. It is performed for the collective gain of all.
The true ideal of Gita is not sacrifice for its own sake and done not for any personal gains, glory or triumph. One is able to serve humanity if and only if he performs his actions efficiently, skillfully and without concern for the outcome or result.
Action must not be renounced because “numerous difficulties arise in the consideration of what should be done and what should not be done” or because there are problems in executing the action. Once we know what is good for loksamgraha or public welfare, we must with all sincerity and without concern for success or failure, engage ourselves wholeheartedly with conviction in performing the purported action.
Not being attached to the consequences of an action helps one psychologically to perform it most efficiently and “attain the highest” results (Gita 3.19). Non attachment to according to Shankaracharya, by the knowledge that we are mere agents, for God is the real doer and according to Ramanujacharya, by surrendering all action to God.
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