Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 1 (BG 6.1) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

6.1 अनाश्रितः not depending (on)? कर्मफलम् fruit of action? कार्यम् bounden? कर्म duty? करोति performs? यः who? सः he? संन्यासी Sannyasi (ascetic)? च and? योगी Yogi? च and? न not? निरग्निः without fire? न not? च and? अक्रियः without action.Commentary Actions such as Agnihotra? etc.? performed without the expectation of their fruits purify the mind and become the means to Dhyana Yoga or the Yoga of Meditation.Karyam Karma bounden duty.Niragnih without fire. He who has renounced the daily rituals like Agnihotra? which are performed with the help of fire.Akriya without action. He who has renounced austerities and other meritorious acts like building resthouses? charitable dispensaries? digging wells? feeding the poor? etc.Sannyasi he who has renounced the fruits of his actions.Yogi he who has a steady mind. These two terms are applied to him in a secondary sense only. They are not used to denote that he is in reality a Sannyasi and a Yogi.The Sannyasi performs neither Agnihotra nor other ceremonies. But simply to omit these without genuine renunciation will not make one a real Sannyasi. (Cf.V.3)

In the first discourse, Arjun's thought was to flee the battlefield and spend his life in renunciation. He did not understand that the karma yogi—the person who performs action with selfless devotion—is the greatest renunciate of all. To perform action without renouncing selfish desire, or to flee from action, means to cause harmful interference in the harmony of the world. When the mind is immature, to flee from life's struggles and go to the tranquil banks of the Ganges for the practice of meditation would result in the fall of even a good person of ordinary virtue to the level of a stone lying in the river. In this verse, Lord Sri Krishna seems to mock Arjun's erroneous thinking. Yet there is no harshness in the Lord's irony. We shall see later that Arjun himself comes to laugh at his own mistaken understanding. For the success of deep meditation, the development of inner powers and their proper application in the right direction is also absolutely necessary. In this discourse, the Lord has placed special emphasis on bringing about transformation in the purposes and sentiments of our mind. Through this, we can enter the spiritual path.