Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 5, Verse 6: Krishna to Arjuna — Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Renunciation (sannyāsa) without the discipline of yoga is hard to attain — not merely difficult but inaccessible to an impure mind, because jñāna-niṣṭhā (steadfastness in knowledge) cannot arise where the inner organ is unsettled. The muni who is yoked through karma-yoga — action surrendered to Īśvara without desire for fruit — purifies the antaḥkaraṇa (inner faculty) until it becomes transparent to ātman; only then does paramārtha-sannyāsa (the renunciation that is Brahman itself, per the śruti 'nyāsa iti brahma') become possible. Such a one reaches Brahman — meaning jñāna-niṣṭhā, absorption in the truth of the supreme Self — swiftly, which is why karma-yoga excels bare renunciation.

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Jñāna-yoga — called sannyāsa here — is incapable of being attained without the prior practice of karma-yoga; the Bhagavān-facing self-inquiry (ātma-manana) it demands simply cannot be sustained without the preparatory grace karma-yoga builds. The muni who is karma-yoga-yukta (yoked to action as kainkarya) accomplishes the yoga easily and reaches ātman — Brahman understood here as the individual self in its full glory within Bhagavān — in a short time. Jñāna-yoga attempted without this grounding exacts great suffering and achieves the same goal only after long delay.

• Madhvadvaita

  Without yoga — disciplined, Hari-directed action — the fruits of sannyāsa simply do not arise; the would-be renunciant is left only with the suffering of conquering desire and anger, which is the entire harvest of an unyoked renunciation. A real sannyāsī is precisely one who is yoga-yukta: the muni who has subdued kāma and krodha (desire and anger) through action in Hari's service. The Pādma-purāṇa confirms: what falls short of mokṣa-fruit is no fruit at all — just as a handful of rice is no reward for a ruby.

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Even a Sāṅkhya-style renunciation — abandoning all action — cannot become true sannyāsa without yoga, because yoga is samatva (equanimity), and one cannot abandon what has not yet been fully done; renouncing the unaccomplished is incoherent. Kṛṣṇa's direct declaration (mama matam — 'this is my view') is that the Sāṅkhya muni also reaches Brahman only when yoga-yukta, never otherwise — because Puṣṭi-mārga holds that the śakti of Bhagavān's grace (prasāda) works through the equanimity of engaged action, not through premature withdrawal.

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The objection addressed here is: if karma-yogins ultimately arrive at jñāna-niṣṭhā through sannyāsa anyway, why not take sannyāsa directly from the start? The answer is that sannyāsa without prior karma-yoga is a cause of suffering — it is simply not achievable, because citta-śuddhi (purity of mind) has not been established, and jñāna-niṣṭhā cannot arise in an impure mind. The karma-yoga-yukta muni, whose mind is purified, takes sannyāsa and reaches Brahman — knows it directly and immediately (aparokṣa) — quickly; as the Vārtika-kāras warn, even renunciants whose intentions are corrupted remain outward-minded, quarrelsome, and careless.

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Even if one has an impure antaḥkaraṇa (inner faculty), why not take sannyāsa directly since it leads to jñāna-niṣṭhā? Because sannyāsa forced without the śāstrīya karma that purifies the inner faculty becomes a double fall — losing both karma (since one is no longer qualified for it) and Brahman (since jñāna-niṣṭhā is inaccessible) — a supreme calamity. The karma-yoga-yukta muni's inner faculty is already purified; as sannyāsī he reaches Brahman — saccidānanda-ātman — swiftly and directly, with no obstacle remaining; this is what the earlier verse (3.4) already established: neither non-commencement of action nor mere renunciation reaches the goal.