Bhagavad Gita 3.4

na karmaṇām anārambhān

naiṣkarmyaṁ puruṣo ’śnute

na ca saṁnyasanād eva

siddhiṁ samadhigacchati

 

“Not by avoiding all duties and toil,

Does one escape karma’s coil.

Nor does renouncing the world alone,

Lead the soul to perfection’s throne.”

My dear Lord, let me never use your words or the path to you as a convenient escape from my responsibilities. You, O Lord, remind me to focus on the essence of things and not on their surface appearance. Giving up duties externally because they are troublesome may give the appearance of spiritual advancement, but it may well take me away from the substance of spiritual advancement.Help me understand, O Lord, that giving up things because of frustration is categorically different from giving up things because of renunciation. Frustration arises when I have a desire for material things but lack the ability to attain them—it is essentially the sour grapes philosophy.

 In contrast, renunciation arises when the ability to gain worldly things may be present, but the desire is absent because, by your mercy, I have developed a stronger desire for a nonmaterial reality. Bless me, O Lord, so that I can focus on developing that desire—the desire for you, who are the ultimate and supreme spiritual reality—and on developing commitment to the path that takes me to you. If, during devotional commitment, renunciation of the world develops organically, let me embrace it, but let me not seek renunciation more than I seek devotion. Protect me, O Lord, from prioritizing renunciation over devotion, for that will lead me into a self-induced spiritual delusion—a delusion that arises in the name of spirituality.

***

03.04 Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.