Word meanings
- jñeyaḥ
- should be considered
- saḥ
- that person
- nitya
- always
- sanyāsī
- practising renunciation
- yaḥ
- who
- na
- never
- dveṣṭi
- hate
- na
- nor
- kāṅkṣati
- desire
- nirdvandvaḥ
- free from all dualities
- hi
- certainly
- mahā-bāho
- mighty-armed one
- sukham
- easily
- bandhāt
- from bondage
- pramucyate
- is liberated
Translations
He should be known as a perpetual Sannyasi who neither hates nor desires; for, free from the pairs of opposites, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he is easily freed from bondage.
He is a true ascetic who never desires nor dislikes, who is unaffected by the opposites and is easily freed from bondage.
He who neither hates nor craves should be known as a man of constant renunciation.
हे महाबाहो ! जो मनुष्य न किसीसे द्वेष करता है और न किसीकी आकाङ्क्षा करता है; वह (कर्मयोगी) सदा संन्यासी समझनेयोग्य है; क्योंकि द्वन्द्वोंसे रहित मनुष्य सुखपूर्वक संसार-बन्धनसे मुक्त हो जाता है।Commentary
A man does not become a Sannyasi by merely giving up actions because of laziness or ignorance or some family arrel or calamity or unemployment. A true Sannyasi is not a hypocritical coward. The Karma Yogi who neither hates pain and the objects which give him pain, nor desires pleasure and the objects that give him pleasure, who has neither attachment nor aversion to any senseobject and who has risen above the pairs of heat and cold, joy and sorrow, success and failure, victory and defeat, gain and loss, praise and censure, honour and dishonour, should be known as a perpetual Sannyasi though he is ever engaged in action.
One need not have taken Sannyasa formally but if he has the above mental attitutde, he is a perpetual Sannyasi. Mere ochrecoloured robe cannot make one a Sannyasi. What is wanted is a pure heart with true renunciation of egoism and desires. Physical renunciation of objects is no renunciation at all. (Cf.VI.1)