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Ch 4 · Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga
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Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 4, Verse 20: Krishna to Arjuna — Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 4.20Chapter 4 · Jñāna-Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh
त्यक्त्वा कर्मफलासङ्गं नित्यतृप्तो निराश्रयः ।
कर्मण्यभिप्रवृत्तो ऽपि नैव किंचित् करोति सः ॥
tyaktvā← tyaj(17 verses)convto abandon, give up, renounce (verbal root)attested in commentariesadvaitaकर्मसु अभिमानं फलासङ्गंviśiṣṭādvaitaनित्यतृप्तो नित्ये स्वात्मनिdvaitaज्ञानस्वरूपमाह पुनर्नित्यतृप्त इतिśuddhādvaitaअर्थात् अप्राकृतं वस्तु यथाभूततया सर्वं विभाव्य कर्मणि प्रवृत्तोऽपि नैव किञ्चित्करोति अकर्मैव स यथा ब्रह्मा कर्मोक्तं तbhaktiनित्येन निजानन्देन तृप्तः अतएव योगक्षेमार्थमाश्रयणीयरहितः एवंभूतोadvaita-bhaktiअकर्त्रभोक्त्रात्मसम्यग्दर्शनेन बाधित्वा नित्यतृप्तः परमानन्दस्वरूपलाभेन सर्वत्र निराकाङ्क्षः karma← karman(144 verses)compound (compound member)action, deed, the law of action-phal← phala(34 verses)compound (compound member)fruit, resultāsaṅgaṃ← āsaṅgaaccusative masculine singular noun(ā- + saṅga: attachment) nitya← nitya(17 verses)compound (compound member)eternal, permanent, daily-tṛpt← √tṛp(3 verses)nominative masculine singular participle nounto be satisfied (verbal root)o nirāśrayaḥ← nirāśrayanominative masculine singular nounwithout support (nis- + āśraya)attested in commentariesadvaitaआश्रयरहितः आश्रयो नामviśiṣṭādvaitaअस्थिरप्रकृतौ आश्रयबुद्धिरहितोdvaitaइति साध्योऽर्थः कथं साधने निवेश्यते इत्यत आह ज्ञाने तिadvaita-bhaktiआश्रयो देहिन्द्रयादिरद्वैतदर्शनेन निर्गतो यस्मात्स निराश्रयो देहेन्द्रियाद्यभिमानशून्यः
karm← karman(144 verses)locative neuter singular nounaction, deed, the law of actionaṇy abhi← abhi-√pravṛtnominative masculine singular participle noun(abhi- + pravṛt: to engage in)pravṛtto 'pi naiva kiṃc← kaścit(15 verses)accusative neuter singular nounsomeone, anyoneit karoti← kṛ(42 verses)present indicative 3rd person singular verbto do, make (verbal root)attested in commentariesadvaitaसः ।।यः पुनः पूर्वोक्तविपरीतः प्रागेव कर्मारम्भात् ब्रह्मणि सर्वान्तरे प्रत्यगात्मनि निष्क्रिये संजातात्मदर्शनः स दृष्टviśiṣṭādvaita। स कर्मणि आभिमुख्येन प्रवृत्तः अपि न एव किञ्चित् कर्म करोति कर्मापदेशेन ज्ञानाभ्यासम् एव करोति इत्यर्थः।पुनः अपि कर्मणाbhakti। तस्य कर्माकर्मतामापद्यत इत्यर्थः। saḥ← tad(305 verses)nominative masculine singular nounthat (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun
spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip
meaning

Freed from clinging to results, content in himself, needing nothing, he moves fully through action yet does nothing at all.

Bhāṣyakāra purports

  • Śaṅkaraadvaita

    Having abandoned ego-ownership of action and attachment to its fruits through right knowledge, the sage is eternally content — desiring no object whatsoever — and wholly without resort to visible or invisible results as props for self-fulfillment. Though outwardly engaged in action for the sake of world-maintenance (lokasaṃgraha) or to avoid reproof by the disciplined, he performs, in ultimate truth (paramārthataḥ), nothing at all, because his vision is established in the actionless Self (niṣkriyātmadarśana). The wise man's acts are karma in appearance only; inwardly they are already non-action.

    divergence: Śaṅkara's bhāṣya: 'viduṣā kriyamāṇaṃ karma paramārthato'karma eva tasya niṣkriyātmadarśanasaṃpannatvāt' — action performed by the knower is, in ultimate reality, non-action, because he has attained vision of the actionless Self.

  • Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

    One who acts while free from clinging to fruit remains content in the eternal ātman alone — not in unstable matter — and holds no reliance-sense (āśrayabuddhi) toward the impermanent world. Engaged in action outwardly, he is in reality practicing jñāna (knowledge-cultivation), not mere karma; the action is transparent to its deeper form as insight-discipline. Rāmānuja insists: karma done in this mode takes the shape of jñāna itself — the act becomes the purification of the knower's mode of being.

    divergence: Rāmānuja's bhāṣya: 'karmāpadeshena jñānābhyāsam eva karoti' — under the name of action he is performing only the practice of knowledge.

  • Madhvadvaita

    Abandoning attachment and affection (sneha) toward results, the devotee recognizes through this verse the knowledge-nature (jñānasvarūpa) being described: 'I am of the same form as the eternally-content, resortless Lord (nityatṛpta-nirāśraya-Īśvara).' Action shed of desire does not bind because the jīva in its distinct, dependent nature acts in transparent worship of Hari — the knowledge of that dependence is itself liberation-in-act. Madhva's terse gloss refuses to conflate agent and Lord; the knower acts as a distinct entity whose self-likening to Īśvara's attributes is devotional, not identity.

    divergence: Madhva's bhāṣya: 'nityatṛpta-nirāśraya-Īśvara-sarūpo'smīti tathāvidhaḥ' — he is such a one who [recognizes]: 'I am of the form of the eternally-content, resortless Īśvara.'

  • Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

    Bhagavān Himself unpacks verse 4.18 through four successive verses: this is the second movement. Having discarded prākṛta (natural/worldly) fruit such as heaven, and prākṛta clinging — i.e. the insistence that 'I am the doer' — the devotee perceives all things as they truly are (yathābhūtatayā) and acts in the ritual sphere (yajña, etc.) yet does nothing at all. He is saturated with nitya-ānanda (eternal delight), free of every prākṛta support, because each object is seen as suffused with Brahman. The actor-who-is-not-actor mirrors Brahmā performing cosmic function: action as pure līlā (divine play), neither earned nor earned-for.

    divergence: Vallabha's bhāṣya: 'nityānandena tṛptaḥ prākṛtāśrayarahitaś ca tattadvastuni brahmabhāvanādi' — content in eternal bliss, free of prākṛta support, with Brahman-vision in each object.

  • Śrīdharabhakti

    Having abandoned attachment to action and to its fruit, content in one's own eternal delight (nitya-nijānanda), and therefore without anyone or anything to seek as support for welfare (yoga-kṣema) — such a person, though thoroughly engaged (abhitaḥ pravṛtta) in natural and prescribed action, does not in fact do even a little. The action reverts to non-action (karmākarmatām āpadyate): its binding power is cancelled, not by inactivity, but by the quality of being rooted in self-sufficiency. Śrīdhara's voice is clean and balanced: no school-polemics, just the mechanics of freedom-in-motion.

    divergence: Śrīdhara's bhāṣya: 'tasya karmākarmatām āpadyata ityarthaḥ' — his action arrives at the condition of non-action.

  • Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

    Jñāna-fire burns prior unmanifest karmas and prevents future ones; but what of present action, which belongs to neither? Madhusūdana addresses this objection directly: one who abandons doership-ego (kartṛtva-abhimāna) and desire-for-enjoyment through correct non-dual vision is eternally content in the form of supreme bliss (paramānanda-svarūpa-lābha), utterly without dependence on body or senses. Such a jīvanmukta (living-liberated one) may be fully engaged in Vedic or worldly action by the force of prārabdha-karma as seen from outside; from his own vantage he does nothing at all — activity is cancelled by vision of the actionless Self, not by withdrawal from the world.

    divergence: Madhusūdana's bhāṣya: 'jīvanmukto vyutthānadaśāyāṃ karmaṇi... abhipravṛtto'pi svadṛṣṭyā naiva kiñcit karoti saḥ — the living-liberate, engaged in action during the post-samādhi (vyutthāna) state, from his own seeing does not act at all.

Sūtrakṛt-Gītā · v1.0 · gita.ekrasworks.com