🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 18.8
Chapter 18 · मोक्षसंन्यासयोग · Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga · "The Yoga of Liberation & Renunciation" · Verse 8 of 78
🪷 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
18.8 To avoid an action through fear of physical suffering, because it is likely to be painful, is to act from passion, and the benefit of renunciation will not follow.
Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society
18.8 He who abandons action on account of the fear of bodily trouble (because it is painful), does not obtain the merit of renunciation by doing such Rajasic renunciation.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school
18.8 Yat, whatever; karma, action; tyajet, one may relinish, eva, merely; iti, as being; kuhkham, painful; [As being impossible to accomplish.] kaya-klesa-bhayat, from fear of physical suffering, out of fear of bodily pain; sah, he; krtva, having resorted; tyagam, to renunciation; rajasam, based on rajas, arising from rajas; will eva, surely; na labhet (shuld rather be labhate), not acire; tyaga-phalam, fruits of renunciation, the result called Liberation, which follows from renunciation of all actions as a conseence of Illumination.
Which, again, is the renunciation based on sattva?
Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school
18.8 Although actions constitute the indirect menas for release, yet they produce mental depression, since they can be done only by collecting materials involving painful effort and since they cause bodily strain on account of their reiring strenuous exertion. If, on account of such fear, one decides that the practice of knowledge alone should be tried for perfection in Yoga, and abandons actions like the great sacrifices applicable to one's station in life, he practises renunciation rooted in Rajas. Since that is not the meaning of the Sastras, one cannot win the fruit of renunciation in the form of the rise of knowledge. So it will be shown further one: 'That reason by which one erroneously knows, O Arjuna, is Rajasika' (18.31). In fact, actions do not directly cause purity of the mind but indirectly by winning the grace of God.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly
18.8. He who would, out of fear of bodily exertion, relinish an action, just because it is painful-that person, having [thus] made relinishment, an act of the Rajas (Strand), would not at all gain the fruit of [that] relinishment.
🪷 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
18.8 दुःखम् (it is) painful? इति thus? एव even? यत् which? कर्म action? कायक्लेशभयात् from fear of bodily trouble? त्यजेत् abandons? सः he? कृत्वा performing? राजसम् Rajasic? त्यागम् abandonment? न not? एव even? त्यागफलम् the fruit of abandonment? लभेत् obtains.Commentary Phalam Fruit or reward Moksha or emancipation which is the reward of renunciation of all actions accompanied with wisdom.Determination and persistence are reired for the performance of religious duties and actions. One may begin action but may relinish it before it is completed on account of some difficulties or physical suffering. What then is Sattvic renunciation The Lord says --
Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)
18.8 Yat, whatever; karma, action; tyajet, one may relinish, eva, merely; iti, as being; kuhkham, painful; [As being impossible to accomplish.] kaya-klesa-bhayat, from fear of physical suffering, out of fear of bodily pain; sah, he; krtva, having resorted; tyagam, to renunciation; rajasam, based on rajas, arising from rajas; will eva, surely; na labhet (shuld rather be labhate), not acire; tyaga-phalam, fruits of renunciation, the result called Liberation, which follows from renunciation of all actions as a conseence of Illumination.
Which, again, is the renunciation based on sattva?
Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary
18.8 Although actions constitute the indirect menas for release, yet they produce mental depression, since they can be done only by collecting materials involving painful effort and since they cause bodily strain on account of their reiring strenuous exertion. If, on account of such fear, one decides that the practice of knowledge alone should be tried for perfection in Yoga, and abandons actions like the great sacrifices applicable to one's station in life, he practises renunciation rooted in Rajas. Since that is not the meaning of the Sastras, one cannot win the fruit of renunciation in the form of the rise of knowledge. So it will be shown further one: 'That reason by which one erroneously knows, O Arjuna, is Rajasika' (18.31). In fact, actions do not directly cause purity of the mind but indirectly by winning the grace of God.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship
18.8 See Comment under 18.11
Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching
।।18.8।। यदि कोई व्यक्ति अपने कर्तव्य कर्म को दुखदायक समझकर कायाक्लेश के भय से त्याग दे? तो उसका त्याग राजस कहा जायेगा। इसका अभिप्राय यह है कि यदि कर्तव्य कर्म दुखदायक और थकाने वाले न हों? तो रजोगुणी पुरुष उन्हें करने में तत्पर रहेगा? परन्तु कर्मशील पुरुष होकर जो अपनी व्यक्तिगत सुखसुविधाओं का त्याग नहीं कर सकता? उसे श्रेष्ठ और साहसी पुरुष कदापि नहीं कहा जा सकता। ऐसे कर्मों का कोई विशेष पुरस्कार नहीं मिलता। भगवान् तो कहते हैं? वह अपने त्याग का कोई फल प्राप्त नहीं करता है।वस्तुत अपने कर्तव्यों का पालन ही महानतम त्याग है? और विशेषत तब वह और भी अधिक श्रेष्ठ बन जाता है? जब मनुष्य को अपनी शारीरिक सुख सुविधाओं का भी त्याग करना पड़ता है। स्वयं अर्जुन भी युद्ध करने में संकोच करके अपने कर्तव्य से विमुख हो रहा था। इस प्रकार? उसका त्याग राजस श्रेणी का ही कहा जा सकता था।वास्तविक त्याग हमें सदैव आत्माभिव्यक्ति के विशालतर क्षेत्र में पहुँचाता है? जहाँ हम श्रेष्ठतर दिव्य आनन्द का अनुभव कर सकते हैं। त्याग के द्वारा ही एक कली खिलकर फूल बन जाती है? और वह फूल अपनी कोमल पंखुड़ियों और मनमोहक सुगन्ध का त्याग कर ही फल के सम्पन्न पद को प्राप्त होता हैं।
🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā
- This is verse 8 of 78 in Chapter 18 · Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga (The Yoga of Liberation & Renunciation)
- Chapter theme: BG 18.66 sarva-dharmān parityajya · the Carama-Śloka · supreme refuge
- Ṣaṭka grouping: ANTYA-Ṣaṭka (BG 13-18 · the resolution)
- Chapter hub: /moksha-sannyasa
🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷
सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)