Sanskrit
तदित्यनभिसन्धाय फलं यज्ञतपःक्रियाः । दानक्रियाश्च विविधाः क्रियन्ते मोक्षकाङ्क्षिभिः ॥
tad ity anabhisandhāya phalaṃ yajñatapaḥkriyāḥ dānakriyāś ca vividhāḥ kriyante mokṣakāṅkṣibhiḥ
Translation
With the pronunciation of "Tat" and without aiming at fruit are performed the various acts of sacrifice, austerity and gift, by those desiring liberation.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
“Tat” marks the acts done by those seeking mokṣa, liberation, and — not coincidentally — it’s paired here with the exact non-attachment (anabhisandhāya phalam) that defined sattvic sacrifice in verse 11 and sattvic austerity in verse 17. The three-verse Om Tat Sat sequence is effectively re-deriving the chapter’s entire sattva standard through the lens of the mantra: Om for the willingness to begin, Tat for release from the fruit, and next, Sat for the quality of the act itself. Tat, “That,” is spoken anabhisandhāya phalam — without aiming at the result. It marks the fruit-renunciation that turns an act into a path: the sāttvic sacrifice, austerity, and gift of the preceding verses, now performed by mokṣa-kāṅkṣī, seekers of liberation.
Study deeper
Word by word
- tad ity anabhisandhāya phalaṃतद् इत्य् अनभिसन्धाय फलं
- 'Tat', not aiming at the fruit (tat + iti + anabhisandhāya + phalam)
- yajñatapaḥkriyāḥयज्ञतपःक्रियाः
- the acts of sacrifice and austerity (yajña-tapaḥ-kriyāḥ)
- dānakriyāś ca vividhāḥदानक्रियाश् च विविधाः
- and the varied acts of gift (dāna-kriyāḥ + ca + vividhāḥ)
- kriyante mokṣakāṅkṣibhiḥक्रियन्ते मोक्षकाङ्क्षिभिः
- are done by those who seek liberation (kriyante + mokṣa-kāṅkṣibhiḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
There’s a fitting symmetry between the syllable and what it marks: Tat is the classical Upanishadic way of gesturing at Brahman indirectly, by pointing rather than naming — and the practice this verse associates with Tat is defined the same way, by what’s absent (anabhisandhāya phalam, without aiming at fruit) rather than by any positive description of what the mokṣa-seeker is doing. The middle term of the mantra and the practice it marks are both defined by subtraction rather than assertion.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Sometimes the clearest way to describe what you're aiming for is by what you've stopped doing, chasing the outcome, needing the credit, rather than by a positive description of the state itself, which may be easier to point at than to name directly.
Professional
- When articulating a team's operating principle around outcome-focus, it can be more useful to define it by what you're explicitly not optimizing for, short-term metrics, vanity wins, than to over-specify a positive target that's harder to pin down precisely.
Family & Social
- If you're trying to explain what unconditional support looks like, it might land better described by what's missing, no scorekeeping, no expectation of return, than by a positive description that risks sounding like a performance to live up to.
Ask yourself
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