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Chapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation · 78 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
  2. 2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
  3. 3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
  4. 4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
  5. 5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
  6. 6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.
Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›
Duty & actionChapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation
18.1118.13

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 18.12

Duty, renunciation and giving up the fruits

Karma · Action

अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मण: फलम् ।

भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु सन्न्यासिनां क्‍वचित् ॥ १२ ॥

aniṣṭam iṣṭaṁ miśraṁ ca

tri-vidhaṁ karmaṇaḥ phalam

bhavaty atyāgināṁ pretya

na tu sannyāsināṁ kvacit

Translation

For one who is not renounced, the threefold fruits of action – desirable, undesirable and mixed – accrue after death. But those who are in the renounced order of life have no such result to suffer or enjoy.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
1

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Freedom from Action’s Results

  1. 1

    After death, those who are not renounced receive desirable, undesirable or mixed results of action; the renounced do not.

  2. 2

    Prabhupāda explains that one acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, knowing his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, is always liberated.

  3. 3

    Act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness with knowledge of your relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

Key points from the purport

. Although various good and bad reactions result from religious duties, one who works without desires for these fruits is not subject to them. He becomes liberated from all the threefold reactions – desirable, undesirable and mixed

It explains the result achieved after death, by both attached and the detached

Attached – Has to suffer or enjoy the threefold reactions of material existence

Detached – Does not have to suffer or enjoy the results of the threefold reactions

Krishna conscious person is always liberated

Because a person in Krishna consciousness is acting in knowledge of relationship with Krishna

Therefore he does not have to suffer or enjoy the results of his acts after death

We should note that in this verse Krishna has again used both words, sannyasa and tyaga, to emphasize that they are synonymous. Thus Krishna has again established that the superior method of becoming free from the reactions to work is niskama-karma—renouncing the fruits of work, not the work itself.

Connected verses · 1

Texts 18.11 & 18.12

This verse answers the question “What about the reaction which comes from the work as prescribed in Texts 18.9 – 18.11”

Further reading

Summary Of Chapters 1 – 6: Karma Section

A true sannyasi does not renounce his activities, but is detached from their fruits

Krishna concludes that renounced order of life (sannyasa) and renunciation of the fruits of action (tyaga) are the same.

Work performed in this way is renunciation in the mode of goodness

Chapter 18, section I: Summary Of Chapters 1 – 6: Karma Section
2

Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

  1. aniṣṭamleading to hell
  2. iṣṭamleading to heaven
  3. miśrammixed
  4. caand
  5. tri-vidhamof three kinds
  6. karmaṇaḥof work
  7. phalamthe result
  8. bhavaticomes
3

Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: karma, sva-dharma.

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 18.12 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to duty & action?

Practice

Do one task today purely because it is right.

5

Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

BG 18.2Duty, renunciation and giving up the fruitsBG 18.3Duty, renunciation and giving up the fruitsBG 2.47Responsibility without ownership of outcomesBG 3.21Leadership by example
Live this todayWorship Kṛṣṇa Through Your WorkA practice from BG 18.46, close to this verse

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.

  1. Learn
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  3. Lead
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