In Chap­ter XVIII of the Bha­gavad-Gita, titled “Mok­shasanyasayog,” or “The Book of Reli­gion by Deliv­er­ance and Renun­ci­a­tion,” Arju­na queries Krish­na about the true nature of renun­ci­a­tion (San­nyas) and aban­don­ment (Tya­ga), seek­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion on what dif­fer­en­ti­ates them. Krish­na explains that San­nyas involves the for­sak­ing of actions dri­ven by desire, while wise sages see Tya­ga as the relin­quish­ment of the fruits of one’s actions. He clar­i­fies that not all actions are to be renounced; actions such as wor­ship, penance, and alms­giv­ing are puri­fy­ing and should be per­formed with­out attach­ment to their out­comes.

Krish­na fur­ther dis­tin­guish­es between actions per­formed in igno­rance, pas­sion, and dark­ness, and elu­ci­dates on true knowl­edge, action, and doer, char­ac­ter­ized by their dis­po­si­tion towards duty, devoid of self­ish motives. This dis­course delves into the Sankhya phi­los­o­phy, detail­ing the five caus­es of action and high­light­ing the lack of wis­dom in see­ing one­self as the sole actor in deeds.

Krish­na empha­sizes the impor­tance of per­form­ing one’s own duty (dhar­ma), how­ev­er imper­fect, over exe­cut­ing anoth­er’s duty per­fect­ly, advo­cat­ing for action in accor­dance with one’s nature and the renun­ci­a­tion of the fruits of one’s actions as the path to per­fec­tion. He describes the qual­i­ties that dis­tin­guish the duties of the dif­fer­ent soci­etal roles—Brahmans, Ksha­triyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras—rooted in the inher­ent qual­i­ties bestowed by nature.

The final teach­ings of Krish­na to Arju­na under­score the supreme impor­tance of devo­tion to God, urg­ing Arju­na to ded­i­cate his actions to the Divine, promis­ing that such sur­ren­der will lead to the ulti­mate lib­er­a­tion and peace, the eter­nal rest­ing place with the Divine. This devo­tion, Krish­na asserts, tran­scends the mere per­for­mance of pre­scribed duties, lead­ing to true knowl­edge and lib­er­a­tion.

Krish­na’s final words to Arju­na are a pro­found assur­ance of sal­va­tion and peace for those who offer their love, faith, and devo­tion to him, empha­siz­ing the lib­er­at­ing pow­er of divine knowl­edge and grace above all else. The chap­ter con­cludes with San­jaya, nar­rat­ing the dis­course to King Dhri­tarash­tra, express­ing his awe and joy in recount­ing the divine con­ver­sa­tion, solid­i­fy­ing the Bha­gavad-Gita’s eter­nal mes­sage of action, knowl­edge, and devo­tion as paths to the divine real­iza­tion and ulti­mate lib­er­a­tion.