Sanskrit
अनाश्रितः कर्मफलं कार्यं कर्म करोति यः । स संन्यासी च योगी च न निरग्निर्न चाक्रियः ॥
anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṃ kāryaṃ karma karoti yaḥ sa saṃnyāsī ca yogī ca na niragnir na cākriyaḥ
Translation
He that performeth such action as his duty, independently of the fruit of action, he is an ascetic, he is a Yogi, not he that is without fire, and without rites.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Chapter 6 opens with Krishna resuming the teaching, and immediately redefines two words Arjuna would have assumed were opposites: sannyasi (renunciate) and yogi. Both name the same person — not the literal ascetic who abandons ritual fire and formal rites, but anyone who acts without craving the fruit of the action. This directly restates 2.47’s core formula in different vocabulary, refusing to let “renunciation” mean mere withdrawal from doing. The verse explicitly rejects the outward marks — niragni (no sacred fire), akriya (no rites) — as the test. It is BG 5.3’s move again: the renouncer is defined by an inner condition, not a costume.
Study deeper
Word by word
- anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṃअनाश्रितः कर्मफलं
- not depending on the fruit of action (anāśritaḥ + karma-phalam)
- kāryaṃ karma karoti yaḥकार्यं कर्म करोति यः
- who does the work that ought to be done (kāryam + karma + karoti + yaḥ)
- sa saṃnyāsī ca yogī caस संन्यासी च योगी च
- he is both renouncer and yogi (saḥ + saṃnyāsī + ca + yogī + ca)
- na niragnir na cākriyaḥन निरग्निः न चाक्रियः
- not the one without sacred fire, nor the inactive (na + niragniḥ + na + ca + akriyaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Arjuna has just heard action and renunciation discussed as though they name different paths; verse 1 collapses that gap in a single line, handing the renunciate’s title to whoever acts without craving the result. The dividing line was never “do you act or not” — it’s whether you’re still measuring the act by its payoff.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When you're torn between "stepping away" and "staying in it," check whether that's even the real choice — the deeper line is whether you're still attached to how it turns out. Someone who stays engaged without that grip has already done the renouncing that matters.
Professional
- Don't assume the colleague who stays hands-on cares more about outcomes than the one who delegates — judge by whether either is still gripping the result, not by who's still doing the work. Detachment from outcome, not withdrawal from action, is the real signal of maturity.
Family & Social
- If you're deciding whether to keep managing a family situation yourself or hand it off, notice that the real question isn't which role you take — it's whether you can act, or step back, without needing it to go your specific way.
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