न हि देहभृता शक्यं त्यक्तुं कर्माण्यशेषतः।यस्तु कर्मफलत्यागी स त्यागीत्यभिधीयते॥
na hi deha-bhṛtā śakyaṃ tyaktuṃ karmāṇy aśeṣataḥyas tu karma-phala-tyāgī sa tyāgīty abhidhīyate
Word by word
The verse says
Nobody wearing a body can give up actions completely. But whoever gives up the fruit of action, he is the one called a renouncer.
In plain words
The practical objection, answered flatly.
You cannot stop acting. Having a body is itself a continuous activity. Breathing is an action, so is sitting still, so is deciding not to answer.
So the word has to mean something else, and here is what it means. The renouncer is not the one who stopped doing. It is the one who stopped collecting.
Where you've felt this · in health
You decide to spend a day doing absolutely nothing. By evening you have eaten twice, scrolled through something you will not remember, had an argument in your head with someone who was not there, and moved a chair. Doing nothing turned out to be a full schedule. There was never an off switch to find.
Going deeper
Total inaction is being ruled out as impossible, not as undesirable, and that closes off a very popular escape route.
If perfect withdrawal were available, it would be the obvious answer to everything this book worries about. No action, no fruit, no binding. The trouble is it cannot be done. A living body is a stream of activity, and the attempt to stop it is itself a strenuous activity.
So the definition moves. The renouncer is defined by what he does with the fruit, not by how little he does. Which means the title is available to a farmer, a clerk and a mother, and not automatically available to someone sitting very still on a hill.
That should be encouraging if you have ever suspected the spiritual life was for people with fewer obligations than you. The one move that matters can be made in the middle of a full day.