18.7 - Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 18, Verse 7

In the Bhagavad Gita verse 18.7, Lord Krishna addresses an important aspect of spiritual practice by stating that prescribed duties should never be renounced. He explicitly warns against abandoning one's obligatory responsibilities, declaring that renunciation driven by illusion or delusion (mohāt) falls under the mode of ignorance (tamas).The verse in Sanskrit reads: "niyatasya tu sannyāsaḥ karmaṇo nopapadyate, mohāt tasya parityāgas tāmasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ," which emphasizes that giving up prescribed duties is improper and stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of spiritual life. This teaching appears at a critical juncture in Chapter 18, where Krishna is explaining how different types of renunciation are influenced by the three modes of nature—tamas (ignorance), rajas (passion), and sattva (goodness).Krishna is addressing a common misconception that spiritual advancement requires abandoning all worldly duties and responsibilities. Instead, He clarifies that renouncing prescribed duties out of confusion, laziness, or misunderstanding does not lead to liberation but further entangles one in ignorance. Such renunciation is tamasic—clouded by illusion and misunderstanding of dharma's purpose.Our prescribed duties serve an important spiritual purpose—they help purify the mind and elevate consciousness from tamo guṇa (ignorance) to rajo guṇa (passion) and ultimately to sattva guṇa (goodness). These obligations vary according to one's station in life and level of spiritual advancement. For ordinary individuals, duties include earning a living, caring for family, maintaining personal hygiene, and meeting basic needs. For more spiritually evolved souls, duties evolve to include sacrifice, charity, and penance.Without performing our obligatory duties, even basic bodily maintenance becomes impossible, as Krishna previously mentioned in Chapter 3, verse 8: "From no-work, not even the body can be sustained". Moreover, these duties have a purificatory effect—eating food that is the remnant of sacrifice produces perfect knowledge, whereas consuming food that has not been offered leads to erroneous understanding. As stated in the scriptures, "The mind consists of food," indicating that even our mental clarity depends on fulfilling certain prescribed duties.Fulfilling these obligations helps develop essential qualities like responsibility, discipline of mind and senses, and tolerance of difficulties. These qualities form the foundation for genuine spiritual advancement. Rather than abandoning duty in pursuit of liberation, the Gita teaches that we must transform our relationship to duty by performing it without attachment to outcomes while maintaining inner detachment.True renunciation, therefore, is not about physically abandoning responsibilities but about renouncing the ego's claim to doership and the attachment to fruits of action. By fulfilling our duties with proper understanding, we create the conditions for genuine spiritual growth, whereas abandoning them leads to degradation of consciousness. This teaching reminds us that spiritual life is not about escape from responsibility but about fulfilling our obligations with a purified consciousness.