Bhagavagd Gita - Session 19- Track 1906

And then He continues in the next verse:

yaṁ saṁnyāsam iti prāhur yogaṁ taṁ viddhi pāṇḍava |
na hy asaṁnyastasaṅkalpo yogī bhavati kaścana ||2|| (VI)

He says: “What is called Sannyasa, you should also know to the same as Yoga; for no one can become a Yogin unless he renounces the desire for the fruits of action.”

This is the essence of it; we have already seen the analyses of it. You may start with Karma, or you may start with Jnana, but the middle point is: renunciation of desire, na kāṅkṣati na dveṣṭi nirdvandvo, that is the middle point for both. The third point also is the same: the Knowledge. When you give this up in the Jnana yoga, you arrive at the highest Knowledge; from here also you go on doing action, but that action cannot become fulfilled unless you know that Knowledge is superior to Action. Therefore you arrive at the highest Knowledge. Having arrived at the highest Knowledge, the result is: fulfilment in action. So, the difference if at all there is between the two is only the starting point: the emphasis you lay down upon it. But not in the real sense of the term, and that is the real basis of the synthesis of Jnana and Karma.

Now, in the 3rd verse:

ārurukṣor muner yogaṁ karma kāraṇam ucyate |

yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śamaḥ kāraṇam ucyate ||3|| (VI)

When you are ascending the path, then if you are following the path of Karma yoga, then you emphasise Karma: yogaṁ kāraṇam ucyate, karma kāraṇam ucyate. When you are moving in Karma yoga, then in the movement of ascent you emphasise karma; but yogārūḍhasya, but when you are becoming the real Yogi, then what happens? tasyaiva śamaḥ, then all Karmas are burnt away. Why? Because when you have been doing Karma, and you realise that Knowledge is superior to Action, then Karma gets thrown into the yajña of Jnana. Then, this very Karma becomes burnt away. You continue action, but that Karma becomes burnt in the fire of Knowledge: yogārūḍhasya tasyaiva śamaḥ kāraṇam ucyate, when your action is burnt away, then you really become Yogi: Karmayogi becomes one only when his Karma are burnt away. In other words, when he ends in Knowledge; and whatever proceeds is not his actions at all: his Karma is all thrown away, is burnt away. What action remains is only divine action. Divine is acting through him, and that is all. But as far as he is concerned, śamaḥ, his Karma becomes silenced, he is no more doing action.

yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasv anuṣajjate |

sarvasaṅkalpasaṁnyāsī yogārūḍhas tadocyate ||4|| (VI)

“When one is not indulged in the objects of the senses, nor in actions, and has renounced all desires, then he is said to have exalted in yoga.”

He is Karmayogi only when his Karmas are so much burnt away, that even when he touches with his senses anything, it does not produce any reaction: it is all burnt away, all action, what we call action. Action is called ‘action which binds you’, only when ‘action’ produces a ‘reaction’, when our action produces a further action. But when you act, and it is burnt away immediately, then you are free even while doing action: you touch the same objects, but it has no…you do not tremble. Then you are free from all trembling because it is no more action, it is only a movement but a movement, which does not bind. Then you become a true Yogi.

So, the Knowledge and Action are both synthesised so much that all action is actually: ‘action which is burnt in the fire of Knowledge’. And if there is any reaction it does not produce… is not produced from your action; it is only the divine action, the Divine Himself is acting out; you are no more acting.

Now, this portion is the first part of the chapters’ n°5 & 6: in what sense is Karma and Sankhya, Sankhya and Yoga are one and the same; the identity of Karma yoga and Jnana yoga, and the synthesis of the two.