Gita 5.3

Karma Sanyasa Yoga

ज्ञेयः स नित्यसंन्यासी यो न द्वेष्टि न काङ्क्षति | निर्द्वन्द्वो हि महाबाहो सुखं बन्धात्प्रमुच्यते ||५.३||

jñeyaḥ sa nitya-sannyāsī yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati | nirdvandvo hi mahā-bāho sukhaṁ bandhāt pramucyate ||5.3||

In essence: The true renunciate is not one who abandons action but one who has abandoned craving and aversion--free from the pull of opposites, liberation comes effortlessly.

A conversation between a seeker and guide to help you feel this verse deeply

Sadhak-Guru Dialogue

Sadhak: "This sounds impossible. How can I function without any desires? Even wanting to eat or survive requires desire!"

Guru: "Notice the specific words: 'kāṅkṣati' (craving) and 'dveṣṭi' (hating). These aren't the same as natural preferences or needs. Eating when hungry isn't craving; obsessing about food when satisfied is."

Sadhak: "Where's the line between natural preference and craving?"

Guru: "Craving creates suffering when unfulfilled and anxiety even when fulfilled--because fulfillment might end. Preference notes what's pleasant without making your happiness depend on it. Can you enjoy a meal without needing it to be perfect? Can you handle traffic without cursing it?"

Sadhak: "But some things genuinely deserve hatred--injustice, cruelty, harm to the innocent?"

Guru: "There's a difference between the energy that opposes injustice and the emotion that poisons you while opposing it. You can fight cruelty without being corroded by hatred. In fact, you fight more effectively--hatred clouds judgment; clarity sharpens it."

Sadhak: "'Nirdvandva'--beyond dualities. Does this mean I shouldn't care about success or failure?"

Guru: "You can prefer success while understanding that your fundamental well-being doesn't depend on it. The one beyond dualities doesn't become indifferent--they become stable. They give their best effort without psychological investment in the outcome."

Sadhak: "But then what motivates action? Without desire for success, why would anyone strive?"

Guru: "What motivates the sun to shine? What motivates the river to flow? When you're aligned with your dharma, action flows naturally without needing the whip of desire or the goad of fear. You do what's yours to do because that's what you are."

Sadhak: "'Sukham'--liberation comes easily? That's hard to believe after years of struggling with my mind."

Guru: "The struggle itself is the bondage. You're fighting against craving with more craving--craving for peace. When you stop fighting and simply see craving for what it is, it releases its grip. The prison door was never locked; you were just pushing when you needed to pull."

Sadhak: "So the eternal renunciate isn't someone who has achieved something but someone who has stopped doing something?"

Guru: "Precisely. Stopped craving, stopped hating, stopped being yanked by the pairs of opposites. What remains is natural freedom--'nitya,' eternal, always present. You're not becoming a renunciate; you're recognizing you always were one beneath the noise of desire and aversion."

Did this resonate with you? Share it with someone who needs to hear this.

🌅 Daily Practice

🌅 Morning

Begin your day by identifying one craving and one aversion you're likely to encounter. Perhaps you crave your morning coffee ritual and you have aversion to a particular colleague's behavior. Your practice today is not to suppress these but to observe them with curiosity. When the craving arises, feel it fully without immediately acting. Notice: can you be okay for a few extra minutes without the coffee? When the aversion arises, feel that too. Notice: can you remain open to the person without armoring against them? This isn't about changing behavior but changing your relationship with the impulses.

☀️ Daytime

Throughout the day, practice the pause between stimulus and response. When something pleasant happens, notice the craving to extend or repeat it. When something unpleasant happens, notice the aversion to escape or fix it. In that pause, ask yourself: 'Can I be okay regardless of how this turns out?' This doesn't mean passive acceptance of everything--you can still take appropriate action. But you're testing whether your basic well-being depends on outcomes. Each time you find you can be okay either way, you're tasting nirdvandva.

🌙 Evening

Before sleep, review the pairs of opposites that tugged at you today. Success/failure in some task, praise/criticism from someone, comfort/discomfort in your body. For each pair, recognize: 'Both of these are temporary states. Neither defines who I am.' Feel the freedom of not needing life to tilt toward the pleasant side of the pairs. This is the 'sukham' (ease) mentioned in the verse--not the ease of getting what you want, but the ease of not needing any particular outcome. Rest in this ease. Liberation isn't something to achieve tomorrow; it's available now, in every moment of releasing the pairs.

Common Questions

If desirelessness is the goal, isn't the desire for desirelessness still a desire? Doesn't this create a paradox?

This is a classic objection, and it has a nuanced answer. Yes, initially there is a desire to be free of bondage--this is what brings someone to the spiritual path. But this desire is self-correcting; it aims at its own dissolution. As understanding deepens, even the desire for liberation relaxes because you recognize that what you're seeking is already present--just obscured by seeking. The paradox dissolves in practice: the desire for desirelessness gradually thins until there's simply clarity, neither desiring nor not-desiring. It's like using a thorn to remove a thorn--you need the second thorn, but eventually you throw both away.

How is this different from depression or apathy? Not wanting anything sounds like losing interest in life.

Depression involves aversion to life itself--a subtle form of 'dveṣṭi.' Apathy involves withdrawal of energy. Neither matches the state described here. The nitya-sannyasi is fully engaged, fully alive, but not driven by craving or repelled by aversion. Think of it as the difference between a calm lake (still but full of life, reflecting clearly, capable of sustaining activity) and a stagnant pond (dead, murky, breeding nothing good). The liberated person experiences the full range of human emotions and engagements, but these don't create bondage because there's no compulsive clinging or rejecting. Energy is high; drama is low.

Is this state even possible for ordinary people living in the world, or only for advanced yogis?

Krishna addresses Arjuna as 'mahā-bāho' (mighty-armed)--a warrior, not a monk. The implication is clear: this teaching is for those engaged in the world. Furthermore, the state described isn't an exotic attainment but a recognition of what's already present. You've experienced moments of nirdvandva--times when you were so absorbed in an activity that craving and aversion were absent. Athletes call it 'the zone'; artists call it 'flow.' The task isn't to manufacture something foreign but to stabilize and extend what you've already tasted. Every human has glimpses; the question is whether we recognize them and let them expand.

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