Bg. 18.9 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

कार्यमित्येव यत्कर्म नियतं क्रियतेऽर्जुन । सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलं चैव स त्याग: सात्त्विको मत: ॥ ९ ॥

Verse text

kāryam ity eva yat karma niyataṁ kriyate ’rjuna saṅgaṁ tyaktvā phalaṁ caiva sa tyāgaḥ sāttviko mataḥ

Synonyms

kāryam — it must be done ; iti — thus ; eva — indeed ; yat — which ; karma — work ; niyatam — prescribed ; kriyate — is performed ; arjuna — O Arjuna ; saṅgam — association ; tyaktvā — giving up ; phalam — the result ; ca — also ; eva — certainly ; saḥ — that ; tyāgaḥ — renunciation ; sāttvikaḥ — in the mode of goodness ; mataḥ — in My opinion.

Translation

O Arjuna, when one performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces all material association and all attachment to the fruit, his renunciation is said to be in the mode of goodness.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

9. O Arjuna, that tyāga in which obligatory actions are performed out of duty, without sense of doership and desire for results, is considered tyāga in the mode of sattva.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

9. O Arjuna, that tyāga in which obligatory actions are performed out of duty without sense of doership and desire for results is considered tyāga in the mode of sattva.

Purport

Prescribed duties must be performed with this mentality. One should act without attachment for the result; he should be disassociated from the modes of work. A man working in Kṛṣṇa consciousness in a factory does not associate himself with the work of the factory, nor with the workers of the factory. He simply works for Kṛṣṇa. And when he gives up the result for Kṛṣṇa, he is acting transcendentally.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Performing the nitya-karma (niyataṁ karma) thinking “this should be done” while rejecting doership and desired results is called sattvic tyāga. It is understood here that the result of renouncing the fruits and not renouncing the action in this sattvic tyāga is knowledge.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

As much as prescribed actions are done daily with the idea that they should be done (kāryam), they should be performed giving up identification as the doer (saṅgam) and giving up all the results (phalam). That type of renunciation is in the mode of goodness, since such awareness is in the mode of goodness.

Surrender Unto Me

This is what Krsna recommended in 8:6 when He said: "All these activities should be performed without attachment or any expectation of result. They should performed as a matter of duty, O son of Prtha, that is My opinion." And then Krsna, towards the end, describes the symptoms of one who renounced in goodness because this is what Krsna recommended: doing one's duty, externally and internally being detached.