Giving Up Or Letting Go? Understanding True Renunciation And Duty In Bhagavad Gita

Two words which can mean a lot, in a competitive situation where the stakes are high, giving up will get you branded a ‘loser’ in the modern world. And yet, it is these high-pressure situations — that job you’ve always wanted, or the house that you’ve always desired — which rip off the sheen from things which once seemed glamorous and grabbed your attention. And then you just give up the pursuit of things which only have a material footprint, which contain no inherent nutritional value for your soul.

Duty and the nature of action

We are all born into a world of work, where we seek to exhaust the vasanas, the impressions that we carry from previous births, through our actions. And based on the role and time of life that we find ourselves in, certain actions are our prescribed duties, eg. as a parent looking after a child, or as a grown-up, looking after your parents in their old age. We must discharge them to do right by everyone around us, our near and dear ones, and society as a whole. And then there are actions which we perform for our own pleasure, which are discretionary.

Sanyasa and tyaga explained

In Chapter 18 of the Bhavad Gita, Shri Krishna beautifully explains the difference between sanyasa, the giving up of material actions, and tyaga, the renunciation of the results of material action. Whilst we must always engage in charity and sacrifice for the benefit of those less fortunate, giving up our prescribed duties just for the sake of bodily discomfort is renunciation in the mode of passion, rather than knowledge. Such renunciation doesn’t lead to spiritual elevation or goodness.

The burden of false renunciation

We saunter through life in hoarder mode, latching on to things that don’t concern our life journeys and start getting weighed down by them. Wisdom lies in understanding what the true purpose of our lives here on earth is, and living authentically, making sure that we don’t abandon our duties for some temporary bodily comfort. It’s worse when we dress up this false renunciation with the robes of sacrifice and big up ourselves in our own eyes. We can fool ourselves for sometime, but unless we face the truth, we end up going around in a karmic maze that won’t let us out until the life lesson has been learnt!

Published on: Friday, April 10, 2026, 05:46 PM IST