Word meanings
- kāryam
- as a duty
- iti
- as
- eva
- indeed
- yat
- which
- karma niyatam
- obligatory actions
- kriyate
- are performed
- arjuna
- Arjun
- saṅgam
- attachment
- tyaktvā
- relinquishing
- phalam
- reward
- ca
- and
- eva
- certainly
- saḥ
- such
- tyāgaḥ
- renunciation of desires for enjoying the fruits of actions
- sāttvikaḥ
- in the mode of goodness
- mataḥ
- considered
Translations
Whatever 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).
He who performs an obligatory action, believing it to be a duty that ought to be done, without any personal desire to do the act or to receive any return—such renunciation is pure.
Whatever obligatory duty is performed just because it is a bounden duty, O Arjuna, by giving up attachment and the results as well—that renunciation is considered to be based on sattva.
हे अर्जुन ! 'केवल कर्तव्यमात्र करना है' -- ऐसा समझकर जो नियत कर्म आसक्ति और फलका त्याग करके किया जाता है, वही सात्त्विक त्याग माना गया है।Commentary
A man of pure nature performs actions that have fallen to his lot in accordance with his capacity and his inherent nature. He is not filled with the pride that he is the performer of such actions nor does he hope for any gain therefrom. An ignorant man may think that the obligatory duties may produce their fruits for the performer by causing selfpurification and preventing the sin of omission or nonperformance. This sort of thinking and expectation of rewards also must be abandoned.
Abandonment of the rewards of actions is praised in this verse. When a man does obligatory duties without agency and with unselfishness and egolessness his, mind is purified, his Antahkarana is prepared for the reception of the divine light or the dawn of Selfknowledge. He gradually becomes fit for devotion to knowledge (Jnana-Nishtha). The aspirant or seeker after liberation should be prepared to undergo physical sufferings. All acts of selfdiscipline and selfsacrifice entail physical suffering.
This, again, is the central teaching of the Gita -- do your duty without attachment and selfish desires.