Renunciation - Yogananda

Any man who renounces the fruits of action and acts only for God is a man of renunciation as well as a yogi. He is a man of renunciation because he relinquishes the desire to be the beneficiary of his actions; he is also a yogi, united to God, because he works only to please him.

A devotee can attend to his health, his family, his business, and still be a renunciant within. He says to himself "I did not create this body or this world. So why should I have attachments to them? I perform my material duties to my family and others, because God gave those tasks to me. I will meditate deeply and play this temporary role just to please him." Such a man of inner renunciation is also a yogi, for he is ever moving toward union with God through both meditation and right action.

By this way of being in the world but not of the world one can obtain peace. It is difficult, but it can be accomplished by an iron will. The path of outward renunciation, complete escape from the earthly scenes of material trouble, relingquishing longings by constant discrimination and withdrawal of objects of temptations, is suited to the nature of a choice few devotees.

The yogi-householder, who moves among sense objects, must free himself from the internal desires that cause bondage more real than the temptations of the outer world. The man of renunciation must remove himself from the entanglements of the outer jungle of material objects as well as free himself from inner longings for the objects he has relinquished. Then and only then-whether in the world or in a woodland seclusion, whether a householder, or a renunciant-one can attain peace.

Whether he is working in the world or sitting silently in a forest, the one objective of the yogi should be to recover the lost peace of the soul, and the soul's lost identity with Spirit. He who is wholly desireless and ego-free has realized this objective.

-Paramahansa Yogananda 

God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita