Bg. 5.10 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

ब्रह्मण्याधाय कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा करोति य: । लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा ॥ १० ॥

Verse text

brahmaṇy ādhāya karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ lipyate na sa pāpena padma-patram ivāmbhasā

Synonyms

brahmaṇi — unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead ; ādhāya — resigning ; karmāṇi — all works ; saṅgam — attachment ; tyaktvā — giving up ; karoti — performs ; yaḥ — who ; lipyate — is affected ; na — never ; saḥ — he ; pāpena — by sin ; padma-patram — a lotus leaf ; iva — like ; ambhasā — by the water.

Translation

One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

10. He who, giving up attachment, offers his actions to the Supreme Lord, is not contaminated by sin in those actions, just as a lotus leaf is not touched by water.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

10. He who, giving up attachment and material identification, consigning his actions to the material energy, is not contaminated by sin in those actions, just as a lotus leaf is not touched by water.

Purport

Here brahmaṇi means in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The material world is a sum total manifestation of the three modes of material nature, technically called the pradhāna . The Vedic hymns sarvaṁ hy etad brahma ( Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 2), tasmād etad brahma nāma rūpam annaṁ ca jāyate ( Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.1.9), and, in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.3), mama yonir mahad brahma indicate that everything in the material world is a manifestation of Brahman; and although the effects are differently manifested, they are nondifferent from the cause. In the Īśopaniṣad it is said that everything is related to the Supreme Brahman, or Kṛṣṇa, and thus everything belongs to Him only. One who knows perfectly well that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa, that He is the proprietor of everything and that, therefore, everything is engaged in the service of the Lord, naturally has nothing to do with the results of his activities, whether virtuous or sinful. Even one’s material body, being a gift of the Lord for carrying out a particular type of action, can be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is then beyond contamination by sinful reactions, exactly as the lotus leaf, though remaining in the water, is not wet. The Lord also says in the Gītā (3.30), mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi sannyasya: “Resign all works unto Me [Kṛṣṇa].” The conclusion is that a person without Kṛṣṇa consciousness acts according to the concept of the material body and senses, but a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness acts according to the knowledge that the body is the property of Kṛṣṇa and should therefore be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Moreover, he who, offering all his actions unto Me, the Supreme Lord (brahmaṇi), giving up attachment to actions, giving up false identification of “I am doing it”, performs actions, is not contaminated at all by any actions, of which some could be sinful. Pāpena here represents all actions, not just sinful ones. [Note: Puṇya is also contaminating.]

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

This verse elaborates the point. The word brahman here indicates the material pradhāna composed of three guṇas, for it is said tasmād etad brahma-nāma-rūpam annaṁ ca jāyate: this Brahman gives birth to food. (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.10) Also the Lord Himself will say in the Gītā mama yonir mahad brahma: the material energy is my womb. (BG14.3) He attributes activities such as seeing, to the transformations of pradhāna in the form of body, senses, prāṇas, ego and fate, not thinking that these activities are part of his pure ātmā. He renounces desires for results and gives up the thought of being the doer (saṅgam tvaktvā). He, endowed with body and senses, thus performs activities, but is not contaminated with sin, with the thought of the self being the body. He is like a lotus leaf touched by water which is sprinkled on it but rolls off. Brahmaṇi should not be interpreted here as the paramātmā as was stated in a previous verse mayi saṁnyasya karmāṇi (BG 3.30) This is because it has just been stated in the previous verse that the doership belongs to the body and senses of the jīva arising from pradhāna, and not to the individual ātmā.

Surrender Unto Me

Being situated in that knowledge, the jnana, then performing niskama karma, or doing one's duty in this detached faction as described in Texts 8‑9, seeing that everything is going on but seeing that one is aloof from everything. The body is acting, he is touching, working, moving about, the body is doing all these things, but oneself has nothing to do with it. Therefore one can perform one's duties without attachment and on a highest level ‑ surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord. There is no sinful reaction that comes to him,"just as the lotus leaf is untouched by water". The flower of the lotus appears to be on the water but actually has nothing to do with it. Also the lotus has a waxy surface, any drop of water which falls on it, immediatly glides right off. Similarly, because of the detachment on the transcendental knowledge, of the one performing niskama karma, all reac glide off of him "as the lotus leaf is untouched by the water".