The Blessed Lord teaches:

To give up the fruits of any act is what the sages mean by this word “renunciation”. And what the great scholars call “sannyasa” [renunciate] is the very state of the man who practices this renunciation.

Some sages say that all self-interested actions should be renounced, while others maintain that acts of sacrifice, austerity and charity should never be abandoned.

From My lips now hear the nature of renunciation. The scriptures [the Vedas, the original holy scriptures], distinguish in it three orders.

The acts of sacrifice, austerity and charity are not to be renounced at all; they are to be performed. Indeed, these sacrifices, austerities and charities sanctify even great souls.

But all these practices must be performed without expecting any fruit, only out of a sense of duty. This is My ultimate thought.

One must never abandon the prescribed duty. Of the man who, under the influence of illusion, abandons it, it is said that his renunciation is Ignorance.

And he who, through fear, or judging it to be painful, shirks the prescribed duty, is said to be dominated by Passion. Such an act can never confer the elevation which results from renunciation.

But he who performs the prescribed duty for the sole reason that it must be performed, without any attachment to the fruits of his act, his renunciation proceeds from Virtue.

The intelligent man, established in Virtue, who neither hates unfavorable action nor clings to favourable action, has no doubts about acting.

It is impossible for the incarnate being to renounce all action. Therefore, true renunciation is practiced by those who renounce the fruits of action.

The threefold fruit of acts, desirable, undesirable and mixed, awaits, after death, the man who has not practiced renunciation. But the sannyasi [renunciatee] will neither enjoy nor suffer from such fruit.

The five factors of the act.

Let me instruct you in the five factors of the act, as described in the Sankhya philosophy [Analytical philosophy of all that exists. Analytical description of body and soul]: they are the place, the author, the senses, the effort and, above all, the Supreme Soul.

Whatever act, good or bad, man performs through the body, the mind or the word, proceeds from these five factors.

And therefore, he who thinks he is acting alone, who does not consider the five factors of the act, does not show great intelligence, and is thus unable to see things in their right perspective.

He whose actions are not motivated by the false ego [identification with his body and domination of matter], whose intelligence does not get bogged down, never kills in this world. Nor does his actions ever bind him.

Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the knower are the three factors that give rise to the act. The senses, the act itself, and its doer form the threefold basis of all action.