Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5 - Sanyasa Yoga - Sloka 7

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Chidbhavananda's translation of The Bhagavad Gita, published by Ramakrishna Mission.

Karma Yoga is Karma Sanyasa - 1-13

1 Gita Sloka every day - Chapter 5 -Sanyasa Yoga - Sloka 7

Yoga yuktah vishuddh atma  vijit atma jitendriyah I

Sarva bhut atma bhutatma kurvan api na lipyate II sloka 7

योग युक्तः विशुद्ध आत्मा विजित आत्मा जितेन्द्रियः ।
सर्व भूत आत्म भूतात्मा कुर्वन् अपि न लिप्यते ।। श्लोक ७ 


With the mind purified by karma yoga, and the self, disciplined, and the senses subdued, one who realises one's self as the self in all beings, though acting, is not affected.


There is a contrast between the earth bound man engaging himself in action and the soul liberating karma yogi doing so. Bondage increases in the former and diminishes in the latter. The action of the yogi not being motivated by any desire, his understanding gets progressively clarified. As his desires in all forms get liquidated his self control tends to perfection. The desirelessness in him gets transformed into clarity of understanding. This clarity itself ultimately becomes the intuition which cognises the one Cosmic Consciousness apparently appearing as the multitudinous forms of consciousness. Karma yoga itself is karma sanyasa because it brings in these successive stages of spiritual development.
An individual has the delusion "I am the doer" as long as the philosopher's stone has not converted the base metal of his mind into the noble one of the divine eye. When he is in ignorance he entertains the feelings of agency such as " I am the doer of this virtuous act" and " I am the doer of this vicious act". This attitude is the cause of the continuation of the wheel of birth and death. But when one realises God, one is freed from the feelings of agency and bondage. 

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa