6 The Perfection of Yoga
It is not he who is speaking. He is just an instrument.
The real speaker is the Supreme Personality of God-
head who is both within and without. At the
beginning of His discourse on the yoga system in the
Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krsna says:

anasritah karma-phalam

karyam karma karoti yah
sa sannyasi ca yogi ca
na niragnir na cakriyah

“One who is unattached to the fruits of his work
and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced
order of life, and he is the true mystic; not he who
lights no fire and performs no work.” (Bg. 6.1)
Everyone is working and expecting some result. One
may ask what is the purpose of working if no result
is expected? A remuneration or salary is always
demanded by the worker. But here Krsna indicates
that one can work out of a sense of duty alone, not
expecting the results of his activities. If one works in
this way, then he is actually a sannyasi; he is in the
renounced order of life.

According to Vedic culture, there are four stages
of life: brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha and sann-
yasa. Brahmacari is student life devoted to training
in spiritual understanding. Grhastha life is married
householder life. Then upon reaching the approxi-
mate age of fifty, one may take the vdnaprastha
order—that is, he leaves his home and children and
travels with his wife to holy places of pilgrimage.
Finally he gives up both wife and children and re-
mains alone to cultivate Krsna consciousness, and
