श्री भगवानुवाच
अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः।
स संन्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः।।6.1।।
The Blessed Lord said, “He who performs an action which is his duty, without depending on the result of the action, is a monk and a yogi; not so in he who does not keep afire and is actionless.”
Osho’s Commentary
With this, Krishna gives birth to a new idea of sannyas. Sannyas was always a world-denying stream, a negation of life. The sannyasin was one who would drop everything—action, home, the very fabric of life—and escape. Arjuna’s mind, too, held this same idea. “Let me drop everything,” he thinks, “and I will attain to the life of sannyas.” But Krishna says, “No.” He says, “The one who acts without any desire for the fruit of action, him I call a sannyasin.” Not the one who merely drops the outer forms but whose inner desire remains untouched. Understand the two parts of sannyas. One is the outer form; the other is the inner soul. The old sannyas put all its emphasis on the outer. Krishna’s sannyas is an emphasis on inner transformation. To drop action is not difficult. Even the lazy can sit and do nothing. To do nothing is not a great attainment. People in this world act, not because they find joy in action, but because the fruit cannot be attained without it. It is a compulsion. Krishna turns this whole thing on its head. He says, “Do the action, but drop the hope for the fruit.” This seems impossible. How can one act without a goal? We run to reach a destination. But Krishna says, “Row the boat, but forget about the shore.” And this is his secret: the man who acts without thinking of the result, the action itself becomes the reward. The action itself becomes the joy. Then, there is no gap between the action and the fruit. Right now is the action; right now is the fruit. This is the ultimate enjoyment of life.