Sanskrit
यत्तु प्रत्युपकारार्थं फलमुद्दिश्य वा पुनः । दीयते च परिक्लिष्टं तद्दानं राजसं स्मृतम् ॥
yat tu pratyupakārārthaṃ phalam uddiśya vā punaḥ dīyate ca parikliṣṭaṃ tad dānaṃ rājasaṃ smṛtam
Translation
That given with a view to receiving in return, or looking for fruit again, or grudgingly, that alms is accounted of passion.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Rajasic giving fails on exactly the axis sattvic giving passed: it’s given expecting something back, or reluctantly (parikliṣṭam, literally “with distress” — given while resenting the giving). The addition of grudging reluctance is a useful detail the pattern hasn’t shown so explicitly before — rajas here isn’t intensity or excess so much as transactional calculation dressed up as generosity. Rājasic giving expects something back — pratyupakāra (a return favour) or phala (merit) — and is done parikliṣṭam, “with reluctance, painfully.” A transaction disguised as a gift.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yat tu pratyupakārārthaṃयत् तु प्रत्युपकारार्थं
- but that [given] for the sake of a return (yat + tu + pratyupakāra-artham)
- phalam uddiśya vā punaḥफलं उद्दिश्य वा पुनः
- or with an eye to the fruit (phalam + uddiśya + vā + punaḥ)
- dīyate ca parikliṣṭaṃदीयते च परिक्लिष्टं
- and given grudgingly (dīyate + ca + parikliṣṭam)
- tad dānaṃ rājasaṃ smṛtamतद् दानं राजसं स्मृतं
- that gift is held to be rājasic (tat + dānam + rājasam + smṛtam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Two quite different personalities get grouped under this single guna: the person calculating a future return, and the person giving only because they felt cornered into it (parikliṣṭam — with distress). One is scheming, the other resentful; they don’t feel like the same kind of giver at all. But both share the one thing rajas actually tracks here — the gift never escapes the giver’s own ledger, whether that ledger is tallying a future gain or resenting a present loss.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Whether you're giving because you expect something back or giving grudgingly because you feel you have no choice, check if both come from the same place — an internal ledger you haven't put down. Real generosity requires closing the ledger, not just choosing which side of it to focus on.
Professional
- A colleague who helps expecting future credit and one who helps while visibly resenting the ask look like opposites, but both are running the same internal ledger — track whether your team's generosity toward each other is actually accounting in disguise.
Family & Social
- Giving to family while quietly expecting gratitude later, and giving while resenting having to do it at all, can feel like opposite moods — but they share the same unclosed ledger underneath. Notice which one you're running before you decide the giving was really free.
Ask yourself
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