Bhagavad Gita · 18.24 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·24 of 78
यत्तु कामेप्सुना कर्म साहङ्कारेण वा पुनः।क्रियते बहुलायासं तद्राजसमुदाहृतम् ॥
yat tu kāmepsunā karma sāhankāreṇa vā
punaḥ kriyate bahulāyāsaṁ tad rājasam udāhṛitam
Sanskrit recitation
What makes an action · 18.13–18.28 · Teaching
Translation
But that action which is done by one longing for the fulfillment of desires or gain with egotism or with much effort is declared to be Rajasic (passionate).
Meaning
A passionate man performs various selfish actions. He boasts of his actions in public. Passion prompts him to do them. He can never work without expectation of a reward.Kamepsuna, phalepsuna The Rajasic or passionate man expects pleasures as fruits of action. A liberated sage alone is absolutely free from egoism. He will not dream even of a reward for the action, because all his desires are gratified when he realises Brahman. He is an Aptakama. (Aptakamasya ka spriha) How can there be longing or craving in a sage in whom all desires are gratified or burnt by the fire of SelfknowledgeEven the performer of a pure act, who has no knowledge of the Self is egoistic. If such be the case, the Rajasic and Tamasic workers are much more egoistic. In worldly parlance we speak of a learned Pundit This Pundit is a very modest, unassuming, and egoless Brahmana.Now listen, O Arjuna, to the characteristics of action that is of darkness.
After Swami Sivananda
What makes an action· 18.13–18.28→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 18.13Learn from Me, O mighty-armed Arjuna, these five causes, as declared in the Sankhya system, for the accomplishment of all actions.
- 18.14The body, the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various kinds, and the presiding deity—the fifth.
- 18.15Whatever action a person performs with their body, speech, and mind, whether right or wrong, these five are its causes.
- 18.16Now, such being the case, verily he who, owing to an untrained understanding, looks upon his Self, which is isolated, as the agent, he of perverted intelligence does not see.
- 18.17He who is free from the egoistic notion, whose intelligence is not tainted by good or evil, though he slays these people, he does not slay, nor is he bound by the action.
- 18.18Knowledge, the knowable, and the knower form the threefold impulse for action; the organ, the action, and the agent form the threefold basis of action.
- 18.19Knowledge, action, and actor are declared in the science of the Gunas (Sankhya philosophy) to be of three kinds only, according to the distinction of the Gunas. Of these, hear duly.
- 18.20That by which one sees the indestructible Reality in all beings, not separate in any of them—know that knowledge to be Sattvic.
- 18.21But that knowledge which sees in all beings various entities of distinct kinds as being distinct from one another, know thou that knowledge to be Rajasic.
- 18.22But that which clings to one single effect as if it were the whole, without reason, without any foundation in Truth, and is trivial—that is declared to be Tamasic.
- 18.23An action that is ordained, free from attachment, done without love or hatred, and without desire for reward is declared to be Sattvic.
18.24But that action which is done by one longing for the fulfillment of desires or gain with egotism or with much effort is declared to be Rajasic (passionate).
- 18.25That action which is undertaken from delusion, without regard for the consequences, loss, injury, and one's own ability, is declared to be Tamasic (dark).
- 18.26An agent who is free from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with firmness and enthusiasm, and unaffected by success or failure, is considered to be of a Sattvic (pure) nature.
- 18.27Passionate, desiring to obtain the reward of their actions, greedy, cruel, impure, moved by joy and sorrow, such an agent is said to be Rajasic.
- 18.28Unsteady, vulgar, inflexible, deceitful, malicious, lazy, despondent, and procrastinating—such an agent is called Tamasic.
Word-by-word→
- tu
- but
- tat
- that
- vā
- or
- yat
- which
- karma
- action
- kriyate
- enacted
- punaḥ
- again
- rājasam
- in the nature of passion
- udāhṛitam
- is said to be
- kāma-īpsunā
- prompted by selfish desire
- bahula-āyāsam
- stressfully
- sa-ahaṅkāreṇa
- with pride
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