The verse and its meaning · Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 6 · Lift Yourself by Yourself

Work Without Clinging

Bhagavad Gita 6.4

यदा हि नेन्द्रियार्थेषु न कर्मस्वनुषज्जते। सर्वसङ्कल्पसंन्यासी योगारूढस्तदोच्यते

Meaning · English

When a person is no longer attached to the objects of the senses or to actions, and has renounced all desires for the fruits of action, then that person is said to be elevated in the science of Yog.

Three terms carry this teaching. Indriya-artha means the objects of the senses: taste, sound, touch, sight, smell, and whatever the senses reach for. Karma means action. Sankalpa is a resolve or wish the mind forms about how things should turn out, and here it means the wishes tied to the fruits of action. Krishna tells Arjuna that a person is called elevated in Yog when the mind stops clinging in two places: to what the senses crave, and to the doing itself, because the doing has been loaded with hunger for results. The one who has let go of every such wish is the true renouncer, the sannyasi. What is left out matters. Action is not dropped. Only the grip is. The reason comes from the lines before it, where Krishna says nobody becomes a yogi without giving up this wishing. So progress is measured by where the mind is hooked, not by robes or retreat. For a warrior, that means the work in front of him and the freedom he wants are not opposed. Shankara reads the renunciation as a full giving up of intentions, leaving the person steady in meditation. Ramanuja reads it as the contemplation of the self that grows once the senses are mastered and desire for fruit is gone. Madhva reads the letting go as an offering of results to the Lord.

Someone writes a letter gripping the pen so hard that the fingers ache and the letters shake. When the grip loosens, the hand moves freely and the writing flows. The writing never stopped. The pen is the action, and the clenched fist is the craving for how it will turn out.

1. Pick one ordinary task today, such as washing dishes, answering a letter, or a ten-minute walk. 2. Before starting, name the result you are hoping for, such as thanks, praise, or a clean finish. Then begin anyway. 3. When your mind jumps ahead to that result, notice it once, without scolding, and return to the next small movement of the task. 4. At the end, note in one sentence how much of the time your attention was actually on the work.

A tailor sits at his machine the night before a wedding order is due. His phone buzzes with the customer's third message. His mind is racing ahead: will she be pleased, will she pay the balance, will she send others. The stitches go crooked. Krishna's teaching to Arjuna looks at the grip, not the work. The tailor sees that the pull toward the phone is a pull toward the verdict. He turns the phone face down, keeps the seam under the needle, and sews the next inch. The deadline is the same and the work is still his, but his attention now sits where the work actually happens. Ordinary experience bears this out: a mind split between the task and its outcome does the task worse. The teaching does not promise that the customer will be pleased, that worry will never return, or that the money pressure is imaginary. Nor does it replace a doctor when anxiety grows heavy enough to disturb sleep or daily life.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Two Stages, Two Tools · Bhagavad Gita 6.3
• Next: Mind as Friend or Enemy · Bhagavad Gita 6.5
• All of Bhagavad Gita · Ask Krishna about it

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