Chapter 18 · Verse 12

Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender

अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम्।भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित्

aniṣhṭam iṣhṭaṁ miśhraṁ cha tri-vidhaṁ karmaṇaḥ phalam bhavaty atyāgināṁ pretya na tu sannyāsināṁ kvachit

Word Meanings

aniṣhṭam — unpleasant; iṣhṭam — pleasant; miśhram — mixed; cha — and; tri-vidham — three-fold; karmaṇaḥ phalam — fruits of actions; bhavati — accrue; atyāginām — to those who are attached to persona reward; pretya — after death; na — not; tu — but; sanyāsinām — for the renouncers of actions; kvachit — ever

Language:

Translation

The threefold fruit of action—unpleasant, pleasant, and mixed—accrues after death to those who have not renounced attachment to results, but never to the renouncers of such attachment.

Commentary

अनिष्टम् unwished or disagreeable or evil? इष्टम् wished or agreeable or good? मिश्रम् mixed? च and? त्रिविधम् threefold? कर्मणः of action? फलम् fruit? भवति accrues? अत्यागिनाम् to nonrenouncers? प्रेत्य after death? न not? तु but? संन्यासिनाम् to renouncers? क्वचित् ever.Commentary One fruit (of action) is pleasant? another is unpleasant? while the third is a mixture of both. Those in whom good actions preponderate are rorn as gods. Men of evil lives are rorn into animal or vegetable kingdoms. If their actions are eally good and bad? they are rorn into the human kingodm. These distinctions of good? evil and mixed do not exist for the liberated sage who has gone beyond the bonds of Karma by destroying egoism? by annihilating the idea of agency and by abandoning the hope of rewards of actions.The action of a renouncer does not generate desire or attachment thereto. Therefore? after death he is not born again. The actions that are performed without any desire for the reward can bring no bondage to the man at any time.He who has surrendered the fruits of all his works to the Lord is free from the bondage of Karma. Some kind of action is inevitable and natural to all beings? but the man of renunciation abandons the fruits of actions.Phalam Fruit This is caused by the operation of various external factors. This is brought forth by Avidya (ignornace). It is like jugglery and very delusive. The term Phala denotes something that ickly passes away? something not real? not solid.Karma Action Virtue and vice.Anishtam Disagreeable or evil? such as hell? the animal kingdom? etc.Ishtam Wished or agreeable or good.Misram Good and evil mixed together the human birth.Only the unenlightened who have not renounced the fruits of actions reap these three sorts of fruits. The real Sannyasins who belong to the highest order of Sannyasa (Paramahamsa Parivrajakas) who are ever engaged in meditation on the pure? immortal Self? who are solely devoted to Selfknowledge? and who rest in their own essential nature as ExistenceKnowledgeBliss Absolute do not reap any fruits as the fire of Selfknowledge has burnt ignorance and its effects which are the seeds of Samsara.Only a liberated sage who has attained knowledge of the Self and who has no identification with the body can totally relinish all actions. He knows that the Self is beyond all actions and that action is attributed to the Self by ignorance. The ignorant man who identifies himself with the body cannot abandon actions. He thinks that he is the agent or the doer of all actions and expects to attain the fruits of his actions and so he is born again and again in this world to reap the fruits of these actions.