Bhagwad Gita - Post 63

Verse 5 

        

Yatsaankhyaih praapyate sthaanam

Tad yogair api gamyate;

Ekam saankhyam cha yogam

Cha yah pashyati sa pashyati.

That place which is reached by the Sankhyas or the Jnanis is reached by the (Karma) Yogis. He sees who sees knowledge and the performance of action (Karma Yoga) as one.

Lord Krishna now clarifies specifically that atma tattva or realization of the soul is the result and that persons who practice renunciation of actions attains this same result as those that practice prescribed Vedic activities without desire for reward and thus for one who sees this similarity of result sees that both paths are actually one. 

The word yoga meaning the science if the individual consciousness attaining communion with the ultimate consciousness denotes by the suffix api meaning also of one who is a practitioner of yoga

Without spiritual intelligence one's actions can never be properly established. Whereas performance of activities in spiritual intelligence without desire of rewards automatically leads one to renunciation. The person who performs actions with renunciation offering the results to the Supreme Lord attains the eternal Brahman or the spiritual substratum pervading all existence. 

The detachment of the Sankhya yogi is quite unusual and not easy to cultivate. If the Sankhya yogi has such a withdrawn outlook, then how come the Karma yogi who is not only involved in action but does not claim that he has a withdrawn outlook, is able to attain the same goal as the Sankhya Yogi? 

Perhaps, Sri Krishna has the answer!!

True, the karma yogi does not, like the Sankhya Yogi, say that it is merely his body that acts, nor does he say “I am the Atman” .

But an important thing is that, he dedicates everything to God. For him, God may seem to be external but that does not matter. Since all actions are offered to God, nothing ever touches him. Arjuna, note carefully that because the Karma yogi is all the time thinking of God, for him also, God eventually becomes internal!!!

The Sankhya yogi, by fully identifying himself with “Atman” or the inner SELF, totally disassociates himself actions and therefore also from the consequences – in other words, actions do not bind him.

For a karma yogi also, actions do not bind him as he has offered all actions and results of actions to God. (Pujari and Prasad talk / post covers this aspect). 

The unbinding is achieved by two different techniques- in one case, total focus inside and in the other, total absorption in God who might be perceived as external, but has actually become internal. For reaching the ultimate Supreme state or Brahman, it does not matter which of the two strategies is adopted. The important thing is to ensure that actions do not bind.

Sri Ramana was totally absorbed in Inner Self whereas Sri Ramakrishna was totally absorbed in worship of Ma Kaali and did everything for the divine mother. 

Yet, if one carefully looks at their lives, one can know that both of them reached the ultimate goal of Realization.  Thus, when it comes to the attainment of Goal and after attainment of goal, typecasting a yogi as either a Sankhya yogi or a Karma yogi is a meaningless exercise. 

Love.