🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 17.12
Chapter 17 · श्रद्धात्रयविभागयोग · Śraddhā-Traya-Vibhāga-Yoga · "The Yoga of the Three Types of Faith" · Verse 12 of 28
🪷 English Translations
Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.
Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition
17.12 Sacrifice which is performed for the sake of its results, or for self-glorification - that, O best of Aryans, is the product of Passion.
Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society
17.12 The sacrifice which is offered, O Arjuna, seeking a reward and for ostentation, know thou that to be a Rajasic Yajna.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school
17.12 Tu, but; yat, that which; is ijyate, performed; abhisandhaya, having in view; a phalam, result; api ca, as also; dambhartham, for ostentation; viddhi, know; tam, that; yajnam, sacrifice; to be rajasam, done through rajas; bharatasrestha, O greatest among the descendants of Bharata.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school
17.12 That sacrifice, performed to gain fruits, full of ostentation and with fame as its aim, know that sacrifice to be characterised by Rajas.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly
17.12. What is offered aiming at fruit and also only for the sake of display-know that sacrifice to be of the Rajas (Strand) and to be transitary and impermanent.
🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices
The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.
Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors
17.12 अभिसंधाय seeking for? तु indeed? फलम् fruit? दम्भार्थम् for ostentation? अपि also? च and? एव even? यत् which? इज्यते is offered? भरतश्रेष्ठ O best of the Bharatas? तम् that? यज्ञम् sacrifice? विद्धि know? राजसम् Rajasic.Commentary If anyone performs a sacrifice in order to obtain? heaven? son? wealth? or name and fame? then it is a sacrifice of a Rajasic nature. The performer of this kind of sacrifice has the motive of increasing his own importance? for popularising his own name in the world? for gaining some reward? for showing himself off as a great? pious and learned man? for making an exhibition of his riches for his own glorificaion. He has no aspiration for attaining the knowledge of the Self.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)
17.12 Tu, but; yat, that which; is ijyate, performed; abhisandhaya, having in view; a phalam, result; api ca, as also; dambhartham, for ostentation; viddhi, know; tam, that; yajnam, sacrifice; to be rajasam, done through rajas; bharatasrestha, O greatest among the descendants of Bharata.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary
17.12 That sacrifice, performed to gain fruits, full of ostentation and with fame as its aim, know that sacrifice to be characterised by Rajas.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship
17.12 See Comment under 17.13
Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching
।।17.12।। कामना तो रजोगुण का लक्षण ही है। अत? रजोगुणी लोग जो भी कर्म करते हैं? स्वभावत कामना से ही प्रेरित होते हैं। फलासक्त पुरुष को सदैव यह चिन्ता लगी रहती है कि उसे इच्छित फल मिलेगा अथवा नहीं। इस प्रकार वह विभिन्न कल्पनाएं करके भयभीत होता रहता है।अनेक रजोगुणी व्यक्ति केवल अपने ज्ञान या धन का प्रदर्शन करने के लिए यज्ञ कर्म करते हैं। उसके अनुष्ठान में उनका कोई अन्य विशेष प्रयोजन नहीं होता है। ऐसे दम्भपूर्वक किये गये कर्म सात्त्विक कर्म नहीं कहलाते? और न ही ऐसे कर्मों से मनशान्ति एवं प्रसन्नता का पुरस्कार प्राप्त हो सकता है। ये राजस यज्ञ हैं।
🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā
- This is verse 12 of 28 in Chapter 17 · Śraddhā-Traya-Vibhāga-Yoga (The Yoga of the Three Types of Faith)
- Chapter theme: Three types of śraddhā · food · yajña · tapas · dāna · BG 17.23 Oṁ Tat Sat
- Ṣaṭka grouping: ANTYA-Ṣaṭka (BG 13-18 · the resolution)
- Chapter hub: /shraddha-traya
🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷
सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)