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GITĀ, TRANSLATION & COMMENTARY, CH, XVIII 1173
अर्जुन उवाच । $ संन्यासस्य महाबाहो तत्त्वमिच्छामि वेदितुम् ।
त्यागस्य च हृषीकेश पृथक्केशिनिषूदन ॥१॥ been summarised in Chapter EIGHTEEN; and Arjuna has been induced to fight of his own free will. In this path, which has been pronounced to be the best of all by the Gītā, Arjuna has not been advised to take up the fourth state of life or Renunciation; but, it has been stated that the man, who lives according to this path of life is a ' nitya-saṁnyāsin' (perpetual ascetic), (Gi. 5. 3). Therefore, the next question of Arjuna is whether the principle of (i) taking sometime or other to the fourth state of life, namely, the state of an ascetic, and (ii) literally abandoning all kinds of Action, is or is not included in the Path of Karma-Yoga; and if not, then, what the meaning of the two words 'samnyāsa' and 'tyāga is (see Gītā-Rahasya pp. 481 to 487.]
Arjuna said :-(1) O Mighty-armed ķhsikeśa! the principle of Renunciation (samnyāsa), and O Kesidaityanisüdana! the principle of Abandonment (tyāga), I wish to know these severally.
[This question has not been asked with the intention of merely knowing the dictionary meanings of the words 'sannyāsa ' and 'tyāga', or the difference between them. The root-meaning of both is" to give up”; and it is not that Arjuna did not know this. But, the Blessed Lord has nowhere advised the giving up of Action; and wherever Renunciation has been dealt with in the 4th, 5th, or 6th chapters (4.41; 5. 13; 6. 1), or in other places, He has directed that one should only make a tyāga' (abandonment) of the Hope of Fruit (Gi. 12. 11), and should make the samnyāsa' of, that is, dedicate', all Actions to the Parameśvara, (3.30; 12. 6); whereas, if one considers the Upanisads, one comes across statements describing the Path of Renunciation, which are indicative of the Abandonment of Action, such as, "na karmaņū na prajayā
