12 (21), Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 18, Verse 12
12 (21), Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 18, Verse 12

अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मण: फलम् |

भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु सन्न्यासिनां क्वचित् ||

aniṣhṭam iṣhṭaṁ miśhraṁ cha tri-vidhaṁ karmaṇaḥ phalam
bhavaty atyāgināṁ pretya na tu sannyāsināṁ kvachit

भावार्थ:

कर्मफलका त्याग न करनेवाले मनुष्योंको कर्मोंका इष्ट? अनिष्ट और मिश्रित — ऐसे तीन प्रकारका फल मरनेके बाद भी होता है परन्तु कर्मफलका त्याग करनेवालोंको कहीं भी नहीं होता। ।।18.12।।

Translation

The three-fold fruits of actions—pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed—accrue even after death to those who are attached to personal reward. But, for those who renounce the fruits of their actions, there are no such results in the here or hereafter.

English Translation Of Sri Shankaracharya’s Sanskrit Commentary By Swami Gambirananda

18.12 These trividham, threefold-of three kinds; phalam, results; karmanah, of actions characterized as the righteous and the unritheous; anistam, the undesirable, consisting in (birth in) hell, (among) animals, etc.; istam, the desirable, consisting in (birth as) gods and others; and misram, the mixed, having a mixture of the desirable and the undesirable, consisting in (birht as) human beings;-these results that are of these kinds, bhavati, accrues; pretya, after death, after the fall of the body; atyaginam, to those who do not resort to renunciation, to the unilllumined, the men with rites and duties, who are not men of renunciation in the truest sense.

The derivative sense of the word phala (pha-la) is this: On accunt of being accomplished through the operation of diverse external accessories, and a result of ignorance, comparable to the charm cast by jugglery, a source of great delusion and appearing as though close to the indwelling Self, it is phalgu (unsubstantial), and as a conseence it undergoes layam (disappearance).(The result that is of this kind accrues to those who do not resort to renunciation). Tu, but; na kvacit, never; sannyasinam, to those who resort tomonasticism for the sake of the highest Reality, to the class of monks called paramahamsas who remain steadfast in Knowledge alone. For, it cannot be that those who are devoted wholly to steadfastness in complete enlightenment do not dig out the seed of transmigration. This is the meaning.

Therefore it is only for those who have realized the supreme Truth that it is possible to become a monk who renounces actions totally, because action, accessories and results are superimmpositions on the Self through ignorance. But the renunciation of all actions is not possible for an unenlightened person who perceives the locus (the body etc.), action, agentship and accessories as the Self. This the Lord shows in the following verses:

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