Bhagavad Gita 5.6
संन्यासस्तु महाबाहो दुःखमाप्तुमयोगतः । योगयुक्तो मुनिर्ब्रह्म नचिरेणाधिगच्छति ॥
sannyāsas tu mahā-bāho duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ | yoga-yukto munir brahma na cireṇādhigacchati ||
Translation
But renunciation, O mighty-armed one, is hard to attain without yoga. The yogi-sage attains the Brahman before long.
Reflection
What have you been about to step away from to avoid the work of staying with it?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Five
Duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ. Hard to reach without yoga. The verse is the chapter's correction of the romantic view of renunciation. The picture of someone who has simply walked away from the work is rarely accurate. The walking away without first having become yoga-yuktaḥ, joined to the practice, leaves the inner work undone. Na cireṇa, before long. The yogi-sage is shown as the faster route. Shankara reads this as the chapter's most practical line: drop the fantasy of a quick exit. Yoga first, renunciation as the consequence, not the strategy.