Bg. 3.17 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

यस्त्वात्मरतिरेव स्यादात्मतृप्त‍श्च मानवः । आत्मन्येव च सन्तुष्टस्तस्य कार्यं न विद्यते ॥ १७ ॥

Verse text

yas tv ātma-ratir eva syād ātma-tṛptaś ca mānavaḥ ātmany eva ca santuṣṭas tasya kāryaṁ na vidyate

Synonyms

yaḥ — one who ; tu — but ; ātma-ratiḥ — taking pleasure in the Self ; eva — certainly ; syāt — remains ; ātma-tṛptaḥ — self-illuminated ; ca — and ; mānavaḥ — a man ; ātmani — in himself ; eva — only ; ca — and ; santuṣṭaḥ — perfectly satiated ; tasya — his ; kāryam — duty ; na — does not ; vidyate — exist.

Translation

But for one who takes pleasure in the Self, whose human life is one of self-realization, and who is satisfied in the Self only, fully satiated – for him there is no duty.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

17. The human who is attracted to the ātmā, satisfied in the ātmā, and completely satisfied with ātmā alone, has nothing to do in regard to fulfilling desires.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

17. The human who is attracted to the ātmā, satisfied in the ātmā, completely pleased with ātmā alone, has nothing to do in regard to seeing the ātmā.

Purport

A person who is fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, and is fully satisfied by his acts in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, no longer has any duty to perform. Due to his being Kṛṣṇa conscious, all impiety within is instantly cleansed, an effect of many, many thousands of yajṣa performances. By such clearing of consciousness, one becomes fully confident of his eternal position in relationship with the Supreme. His duty thus becomes self-illuminated by the grace of the Lord, and therefore he no longer has any obligations to the Vedic injunctions. Such a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is no longer interested in material activities and no longer takes pleasure in material arrangements like wine, women and similar infatuations.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

It has now been stated that if you cannot be without desires, you can perform actions with desires. But he who reaches the stage of jṣāna because of purity of heart never performs actions out of desire. That is expressed in two verses. Because he is enjoying in the self, is blissful by realization of the bliss of the ātmā, he does not engage at all in the pleasure of material objects. Being engaged only in the ātmā (ātmāny eva), he does not perform any actions related to the external objects (tasya kāryam na vidyate).

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

That person who has seen the ātmā by ātmā’s inherent knowledge, [Note: Baladeva uses the phrase dharma bhūta jṣāna. Rāmanuja would use the phrase svarūpa bhūta jṣana or dharma bhūta jṣāna for self awareness, and dharma bhūta jṣāna for awareness of other things.] which arises from cleansing the mirror of the heart by niṣkāma karma and by worship of Me, as recommended previously by Me, is not obliged to do any actions. This is explained in two verses. He who has a taste (ātma rati) for ātmā, who sees his very self, endowed with eight qualities such as sinlessness; who is satisfied (ātma tṛpta) by the ātmā with its self-manifesting bliss, rather than by food and drink; who is completely pleased only in that ātmā with those qualities— not in singing and dancing—need not do any prescribed activity as duty in order to perceive the ātmā, since he is always seeing the ātmā as his very nature.

Surrender Unto Me

So question is: why should one act and follow prescribed duties, which are basically karma‑kanda, if he has no desire to gain anything material? The answer is: to act dutifully (even though he has no reason to perform this duties for his selfish interest).