Bhagavad Gita · 18.10 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·10 of 78
न द्वेष्ट्यकुशलं कर्म कुशले नानुषज्जते।त्यागी सत्त्वसमाविष्टो मेधावी छिन्नसंशयः ॥
na dveṣhṭy akuśhalaṁ karma kuśhale nānuṣhajjate
tyāgī sattva-samāviṣhṭo medhāvī chhinna-sanśhayaḥ
Sanskrit recitation
True renunciation · 18.1–18.12 · Teaching
Translation
The man of renunciation, pervaded by purity, intelligent, and with his doubts cut asunder, does not hate an unpleasant task nor is he attached to a pleasant one.
Meaning
All actions are eally welcome to the man of renunciation. He is not affected by either pleasure or pain. He is not elated at performing pleasant actions nor does he find unpleasantness when he does disagreeable actions. He does not hate the latter, nor is he attached to the former. Neither has he aversion to painful actions nor attraction to pleasant ones. As he has no attachment to any action or its rewards, he will do any action for the welfare of all beings.Akusalam Karma Disagreeable work or work done with expectation of reward, which becomes the cause of bondage to Samsara, by producing a body. He does not hate an unpleasnt action, thinking, Of what use is itKusale To good ones which include obligatory daily duties. He has no attachment to them even with the notion that they lead to salvation by purifying the heart and conseently giving rise to the dawn of knowledge and devotion to it.When one abandons attachment to action and desire for its reward and performs actions vigorously, his heart is filled with Sattva or purity which produces discrimination between the Real and the unreal, the Eternal and the transient. Then he attains knowledge of the Self which dispels all the doubts caused by ignorance. He now realises that the only means of attaining the spureme bliss or eternal peace or immortality is knowledge of the Self. This rends asunder all his doubts
After Swami Sivananda
True renunciation· 18.1–18.12→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 18.1Arjuna said, "O mighty-armed Hrishikesa, I desire to know the essence or truth of renunciation and abandonment severally, O slayer of Kesi."
- 18.2The Blessed Lord said, "The sages understand sannyasa to be the renunciation of action with desire; the wise declare the abandonment of the fruits of all actions to be tyaga."
- 18.3Some philosophers declare that actions should be abandoned as evil; while others declare that acts of sacrifice, gift, and austerity should not be relinquished.
- 18.4Hear from Me the conclusion or the final truth about this abandonment, O best of the Bharatas; abandonment, indeed, O best of men, has been declared to be of three kinds.
- 18.5Acts of sacrifice, gift, and austerity should not be abandoned, but should be performed; for sacrifice, gift, and austerity are the purifiers of the wise.
- 18.6But even these actions should be performed, leaving aside attachment and the desire for rewards, O Arjuna; this is my certain and most assured conviction.
- 18.7Verily, the renunciation of obligatory action is not proper; the abandonment of the same out of delusion is declared to be Tamasic.
- 18.8He who abandons action out of fear of bodily trouble (because it is painful), does not obtain the merit of renunciation by performing such Rajasic renunciation.
- 18.9Whatever obligatory action is done, O Arjuna, merely because it ought to be done, abandoning attachment and also the desire for reward, that renunciation is regarded as sattvic (pure).
18.10The man of renunciation, pervaded by purity, intelligent, and with his doubts cut asunder, does not hate an unpleasant task nor is he attached to a pleasant one.
- 18.11Indeed, it is not possible for an embodied being to completely abandon actions; however, he who relinquishes the rewards of actions is truly called a man of renunciation.
- 18.12The threefold fruit of action (evil, good, and mixed) accrues after death to those who do not abandon it, but never to those who do.
Word-by-word→
- na
- nor
- karma
- work
- sattva
- in the mode of goodness
- tyāgī
- one who renounces desires for enjoying the fruits of actions
- kuśhale
- to an agreeable
- medhāvī
- intelligent
- akuśhalam
- disagreeable
- dveṣhṭi
- hate
- anuṣhajjate
- seek
- samāviṣhṭaḥ
- endowed with
- chhinna-sanśhayaḥ
- those who have no doubts
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