Chapter 5Verse 12 of 29

Bhagavad Gita 5.12

युक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम् । अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥

yuktaḥ karma-phalaṃ tyaktvā śāntim āpnoti naiṣṭhikīm | ayuktaḥ kāma-kāreṇa phale sakto nibadhyate ||

Translation

The yoked one, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains perfect peace; the unyoked one, impelled by desire and attached to fruit, is bound.

Two operators, two outcomes, one verb each. Yuktaḥ, joined, drops fruit and gains peace. Ayuktaḥ, unjoined, driven by kāma-kāra, the doing-because-of-desire, gets stuck to fruit and is bound. Naiṣṭhikī śānti, the peace that is final. Shankara: the verse is the cleanest contrast in the chapter. The same act done in two operators produces two completely different inner outcomes. The act looks the same from outside. The difference is invisible until it is everything.

Reflection

Which of your wins this month tasted the way you had imagined it would, and which one tasted the way the wanting had primed it to?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Five

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