Work out your salvation in and through the World. – Swami Sivananda
Arjuna said to Lord Krishna: “O Krishna, Thou praises renunciation of actions and then also Yoga (of action or Nishkamya Karma Yoga). Of the two which is better?
The Lord Krishna said: “Renunciation and Yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss. Of the two, Yoga by Action is verily better than renunciation of action. A Nitya Sannyasin or perpetual ascetic is one who neither hates nor desires, one who is free from the pairs of opposites. Children, not sages, speak of the Sankhya (Jnana Yoga) and Yoga (Karma Yoga) as different. He who is duly established in One obtains the fruits of both. That abode which is gained by those practicing Sankhya is reached by the Yogis also.”
“He sees who sees that the Sankhya and Yoga are one. But without Yoga, O mighty-armed, renunciation is hard to attain to; the Yoga harmonized Muni swiftly goes to the Eternal. He who is harmonized by Yoga, the self purified, self ruled with senses subdued, whose self is the Self of all beings, although acting, he is not affected. He who acts, placing all actions in the Eternal, abandoning all kinds of attachment, is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the drops of water. Yogis, having abandoned all attachment, perform action by the body, by the mind, by the reason and even by the senses, only for the purification of the self.”
“The harmonized man, having abandoned the fruits of action, attains to the eternal peace. The non harmonized, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, is bound. Mentally removing all actions, the sovereign dweller in the body rests serenely in the nine-gated city, neither acting nor causing to act. The Lord of the World produces not the idea of agency, nor actions, nor the union together of action and its fruit; nature however, manifests. The Lord accepts neither the evil doing nor yet the well doing of any. Wisdom is enveloped by ignorance; therewith mortals are deluded.” Ch. 5 -1 to 16.
Arjuna said to Lord Krishna: “I desire to know severally the essence of renunciation, O Hrishikesha, and of relinquishment, O Kesinishudana.”
The Blessed Lord said: “Sages have known as renunciation as the renouncing of works with desire; the relinquishing of the fruit of all actions is called relinquishment by the wise.
‘Action should be relinquished as an evil’, declare some thoughtful men. ‘Acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity should not be relinquished’, say others. Hear My conclusions as to that relinquishment, O best of the Bharatas, since relinquishment, O tiger of men, has been explained as threefold. Acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity should not be relinquished, but should be performed; sacrifice, gift and also austerity are the purifiers of the intelligent. But even these actions should be done leaving aside attachment and fruit, O Partha; that is My certain and best belief.
Renunciation of actions that are prescribed is not proper, the relinquishment from delusion is said to be of darkness. He who relinquishes an action from fear of physical suffering, saying that it is painful, thus performing a passionate relinquishment, obtains not the fruit of relinquishment.
Those who perform a prescribed action, saying: ‘It ought to be done,’ O Arjuna, relinquishing attachment and also its fruit, that relinquishment is regarded as pure. The relinquished, pervaded by purity, intelligence and with doubts cut away, hates not non pleasurable action nor is attached to pleasurable. Nor indeed can embodied beings completely relinquish action. Those who relinquish the fruit of action is said to be a relinquisher. Good, evil and mixed threefold is the fruit of action hereafter for the non relinquisher; but there is none ever for the renouncer.” Bhagavad Gita Ch. XVIII-1 to 12.