True Renunciation
The wise understand renunciation as giving up actions born of desire; giving up the fruits of all action they call relinquishment.
True renunciation is not abandoning action but abandoning attachment to results. One can remain active in the world while being inwardly renounced. This redefinition makes liberation accessible to householders and workers, not just monks. External renunciation without internal detachment is incomplete; internal detachment while maintaining external responsibilities is the ideal. This teaching liberates spirituality from monasticism.
The giving up of activities based on material desire is what great learned men call the renounced order of life (sannyasa). And giving up the results of all activities is what the wise call renunciation (tyaga).
This distinction between sannyasa and tyaga democratizes renunciation—anyone can practice tyaga while fulfilling worldly duties.
Bhagavad Gita