Bhagavad Gita · 18.27 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·27 of 78
रागी कर्मफलप्रेप्सुर्लुब्धो हिंसात्मकोऽशुचिः।हर्षशोकान्वितः कर्ता राजसः परिकीर्तितः ॥
rāgī karma-phala-prepsur lubdho hinsātmako
‘śhuchiḥ harṣha-śhokānvitaḥ kartā rājasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ
Sanskrit recitation
What makes an action · 18.13–18.28 · Teaching
Translation
Passionate, desiring to obtain the reward of their actions, greedy, cruel, impure, moved by joy and sorrow, such an agent is said to be Rajasic.
Meaning
A passionate agent is the abode of sins and of greed of the whole world. Wherever he imagines that he may gain worldly fruit he will strive wholeheartedly to obtain it. Whatsoever he gains he keeps strictly to himself and his family. If he attains the fruits of his actions he rejoices. If he fails in his attempt he is overcome by grief.Lubdhah Greedy Thirsting for others property not sharing ones own wealth with deserving persons.Himsatmakah Doing injury to others.Asuchih Impure Having no external and internal purity. (Internal purity is freedom from lust,,anger, greed and pride the heart is filled with compassion, complacency, forgiveness, dispassion, love, etc.)Harshasokanvitah Joy on the attainment of what is desirable, pleasant or agreeable sorrow on the attainment of what is not desirable, pleasant or agreeable, and on having to part with what is desirable. He will be elated with joy when he attains success he will be overcoming by grief when he fails in his undertaking.
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→
- kartā
- performer
- rāgī
- craving
- lubdhaḥ
- greedy
- prepsuḥ
- covet
- rājasaḥ
- in the mode of passion
- aśhuchiḥ
- impure
- karma-phala
- fruit of work
- parikīrtitaḥ
- is declared
- hinsā-ātmakaḥ
- violent-natured
- harṣha-śhoka-anvitaḥ
- moved by joy and sorrow
Related verses
- 1.33Those for whose sake we desire kingdom, enjoyments, and pleasures stand here in battle,…
- 2.5Better it is, indeed, in this world to accept alms than to slay the most noble teachers.…
- 2.43Full of desires, with heaven as their goal, (they speak words that are directed to ends)…
- 2.70He attains peace into whom all desires enter, just as waters enter the ocean which, filled…