In the next sutra the author explains the meaning of the word 'yukta' (appropriate) in the phrase 'yukta-vairagya' (appropriate renunciation).
Sutra 38
One kind of renunciation beings liberation, and another kind of renunciation brings bondage.
Commentary by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
In this sutra the author explains the meaning of the word 'yukta' (appropriate in the phrase 'yukta-vairagya' (appropriate renunciation). Renunciation is of two kinds: 1. yukta-vairagya (appropriate renunciation) and 2. phalgu-vairagya (false renunciation). Proper renunciation is performed when, without being attached to the results of one's work, and acting purely and in a saintly manner, one offers the results of his work to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This kind of renunciation brings liberation from the bondage of repeated birth and death. In Bhagavad-gita (6.1) the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains:
"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."
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“Who am I?” Maybe you’ve never even asked yourself this question. You might think you already know who you are. Unfortunately, however, it’s likely that you don’t know who you are at all. And if you don’t know your real identity, you’re in trouble. You’ll spend your life in a kind of dream state—you’ll falsely identify yourself as something or someone you aren’t. Then, on the basis of this false identification, you’ll determine the goals of your life and the purpose of your existence. You use these goals to gauge whether you are making “progress” in life, whether you are a “success.” And you are aided and abetted in this delusion by a complex network of relationships with other dreamers. Of course, at death (and sometimes before), the whole thing turns into a nightmare.
So knowing who you are is a very practical necessity. The question “Who am I?” is not a philosophical football meant to be kicked around coffeehouses by pseudo-intellectuals. It’s a real-life question. Nothing is more important and more relevant than to know who you are.
Siddhaswarupananda – Jagad Guru Speaks
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Other instructions like this may be seen in many verses of Bhagavad-gita. False renunciation, on the other hand, is dry, makes the heart hard, makes one proud, is petty, is likened to the renunciation practiced by monkeys living in the forest, and brings the sufferings of repeated birth and death in the material world as its true result. In the Sruti-sastra it is said:
"Not by mere renunciation does one attain liberation."
In Bhagavad-gita (18.8) the Supreme Personality of Godhead explains:
"Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome, or out of fear, is said to be in the mode of passion. Such action never leads to the elevation of renunciation."
In Bhagavad-gita (3.6) the Supreme Personality of Godhead again explains:
"One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense-objects, certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender."
In Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.256) Srila Rupa Gosvami explains:
"When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts anything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is not as complete in his renunciation."
