Bhagwad Gita - Post 224

Verse 10

The man of renunciation, pervaded by purity, intelligent and with his doubts cut asunder, does not hate a disagreeable work nor is he attached to an agreeable one.

The person who renounces attachment due the preponderance of the sattva guna in him, who is very intelligent in perceiving the pros and cons of things, and has no doubt whatsoever about the way in which work is to be done, hating not painful work, clinging not to pleasurable work, such a person is really an example before us. 

It does not mean that we should cling to something because it is pleasant, nor does it mean that we should hate something because it is not pleasant. 

Na dveṣṭy akuśalaṁ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate: The pleasant form of work does not call for attraction, nor should it evoke hatred when it is painful work calling for hard labour on our part. 

In as much as the ego-sense is absent there is no impetus to exhibit aversion or attraction for either one or the other and since all other goals have been relinquished and resigned with the exception of moksa or final emancipation from material existence as revealed in Vedic scriptures then one is truly established in ultimate renunciation. 

Thus the conclusion is that relinquishing all ego-sense of authorship and abandoning any desire for rewards is actual renunciation and not mere abstention from actions.

This state of existence is echoed in Ashtavakra Gita in the following verse 

(Liberation is when the mind does not long for anything, grieve about anything, reject anything, or hold on to anything, and is not pleased about anything or displeased about anything.)

(Chapter 8, verse 2)

The verse speaks of acceptance of an action which is agreeable or rejection of an action which is disagreeable.

The question is- Agreeable or disagreeable to WHAT?

It is agreeable / disagreeable to one’s EGO, dominated by Rajas/Tamas.

And, Ashtavakra says, the one who has transcended EGO, stands liberated at that very moment and there is no ego to say, "O Yes, this I shall accept” or to frown, “O No, this I reject”.

Verse 11

Verily, it is not possible for an embodied being to abandon actions entirely; but he who relinquishes the rewards of actions is verily called a man of renunciation.

No embodied person can totally be free from work. The very fact of our being in a body calls for some kind of engagement because this body is made up of physical matter and, therefore, it is a form of prakriti constituted of the three gunas—sattva, rajas and tamas. 

In as much as prakriti is always in a state of disturbance—it is not in a state of equilibrium—and its properties of sattva, rajas and tamas are constantly moving in a cyclic fashion, they compel the body to also be subject to that kind of cyclic action because the physical body of a human being, or of anything whatsoever, is not free from the contingency arising from the operation of the three gunas.

Abandoning work is, therefore, not possible as long as we have a body. But we shall be free from the binding effect of karma, or action, provided we do not look to the effect, or the fruit, that accrues from the work. 

We should do our work because it is necessary to work for the welfare of everybody, not because we get some recompense out of it. 

Sattvic work is work done for work’s sake only, whether or not it brings any fruit. Actually, every duty performed well—in a most unselfish manner—will, of its own accord, bring a result which is most pleasant, and we need not ask for it. 

Love.