Shloka 16
Karma-Saṃnyāsa–Karma-Yoga Saṃvāda
Renunciation and the Discipline of Action
एवं प्रवर्तितं चक्र नानुवर्तयतीह य: । अघायुरिन्द्रियारामो मोघं पार्थ स जीवति
evaṁ pravartitaṁ cakraṁ nānuvartayatīha yaḥ | aghāyur indriyārāmo moghaṁ pārtha sa jīvati ||
हे पार्थ! जो पुरुष इस लोक में इस प्रकार प्रवर्तित सृष्टि-चक्र का अनुसरण नहीं करता, वह इन्द्रियों के भोगों में रमने वाला पापायु पुरुष व्यर्थ ही जीता है।
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
A human life becomes ethically empty when one refuses to participate in the world-sustaining cycle of duty and sacrifice (yajña/reciprocity). Mere sense-enjoyment, detached from responsibility and contribution, is condemned as sinful and ‘lived in vain.’
In the Kurukṣetra setting, Arjuna is being instructed on why action cannot be abandoned. This verse concludes a line of reasoning: the cosmos runs on a reciprocal cycle (duty → offering/service → shared sustenance), and the person who breaks that cycle by neglecting prescribed responsibilities becomes a self-centered consumer whose life is spiritually fruitless.