Bhagavad Gita · 2.51 · Transcendental Knowledge·51 of 72
कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः।जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम् ॥
karma-jaṁ buddhi-yuktā hi phalaṁ tyaktvā manīṣhiṇaḥ
janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ padaṁ gachchhanty-anāmayam
Sanskrit recitation
Act without clinging to the fruit · 2.47–2.53 · Teaching
Translation
The wise, possessing knowledge, having abandoned the fruits of their actions, and being freed from the bonds of birth, go to the place which is beyond all evil.
Meaning
Clinging to the fruits of actions is the cause of rirth. Man takes a body to enjoy them. If anyone performs actions for the sake of God in fulfilment of His purpose without desire for the fruits, he is released from the bonds of birth and attains to the blissful state or the immortal abode.Sages who possess evenness of mind abandon the fruits of their actions and thus escape from good and bad actions.Buddhi referred to in the three verses 49, 50 and 51 may be the wisdom of the Sankhyas, i.e., the knowledge of the Self or AtmaJnana which dawns when the mind is purified by Karma Yoga.
After Swami Sivananda
Act without clinging to the fruit· 2.47–2.53→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 2.47Your right is only to work, but not to its results; do not let the results of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.
- 2.48Perform action, O Arjuna, being steadfast in Yoga, abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure; evenness of mind is called Yoga.
- 2.49Far lower than the Yoga of wisdom is action, O Arjuna. Seek thou refuge in wisdom; wretched are those whose motive is the fruit.
- 2.50Endowed with wisdom and evenness of mind, one casts off in this life both good and evil deeds; therefore, devote yourself to Yoga; Yoga is skill in action.
2.51The wise, possessing knowledge, having abandoned the fruits of their actions, and being freed from the bonds of birth, go to the place which is beyond all evil.
- 2.52When your intellect passes beyond the mire of delusion, then you will attain indifference to what has been heard and what has yet to be heard.
- 2.53When your intellect, which is perplexed by the Vedic texts you have read, stands immovable and steady in the Self, then you will attain Self-realization.
Word-by-word→
- karma-jam
- born of fruitive actions
- buddhi-yuktāḥ
- endowed with equanimity of intellect
- hi
- as
- phalam
- fruits
- tyaktvā
- abandoning
- manīṣhiṇaḥ
- the wise
- janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ
- freedom from the bondage of life and death
- padam
- state
- gachchhanti
- attain
- anāmayam
- devoid of sufferings
Related verses
- 4.20Having abandoned attachment to the fruits of the action, ever content, depending on…
- 4.21Without hope, controlling the mind and the self, having abandoned all covetousness, and…
- 5.10He who does actions, offering them to Brahman and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by…
- 5.12The one who is united (the well-poised or harmonized) having abandoned the fruit of action…