Chapter 18 - Moksha Sanyaas Yoga


Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender



The eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is Moksha Sanyas Yoga. Arjuna requests the Lord to explain the difference between the two types of renunciations - sanyaas(renunciation of actions) and tyaag(renunciation of desires). Krishna explains that a sanyaasi is one who abandons family and society in order to practise spiritual discipline whereas a tyaagi is one who performs their duties without attachment to the rewards of their actions and dedicating them to the God. Krishna recommends the second kind of renunciation - tyaag. Krishna then gives a detailed analysis of the effects of the three modes of material nature. He declares that the highest path of spirituality is pure, unconditional loving service unto the Supreme Divine Personality, Krishna. If we always remember Him, keep chanting His name and dedicate all our actions unto Him, take refuge in Him and make Him our Supreme goal, then by His grace, we will surely overcome all obstacles and difficulties and be freed from this cycle of birth and death.


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Verse 31


O Partha, that intellect is born of rajas with which one wrongly understands virtue and vice as also what ought to be done and ought not to be done.

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Verse 32


O Partha, that intellect is born of tamas which, being covered by darkness, considers vice as virtue, and verily perceives all things contrary to what they are.

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Verse 33


O Partha, the firmness that is unfailing through concentration, with which one restrains the functions of the mind, vital forces and the organs, that firmness is born of sattva.

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Verse 34


But, O Partha, the firmness with which one holds on to righteousness, covetable things and wealth, being desirous of their fruits as the occasion for each arises, that firmness is born of rajas.

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Verse 35


That firmness is considered to be born of tamas due to which a person with a corrupt intellect does not give up sleep, fear, sorrow, despondency as also sensuality.

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Verse 36-37


Now hear from Me, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, as regards the three kinds of joy: That in which one delights owing to habit, and certainly attains the cessation of sorrows; That which is like poison in the beginning, but comparable to nectar in the end, and which, arises from the purity of one's intellect-that joy is spoken of as born of sattva.

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