Sanskrit
न द्वेष्ट्यकुशलं कर्म कुशले नानुषज्जते । त्यागी सत्त्वसमाविष्टो मेधावी छिन्नसंशयः ॥ १० ॥
na dveṣṭy akuśalaṃ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate tyāgī sattvasamāviṣṭo medhāvī chinnasaṃśayaḥ
Translation
The relinquisher pervaded by purity, intelligent and with doubts cut away, hateth not unpleasurable action nor is attached to pleasurable.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna sketches the psychological profile of this sattvic relinquisher: purified, intelligent, free of doubt, and — tellingly — someone who neither hates unpleasant duty nor clings to pleasant duty. This even-handedness toward the work itself, independent of whether it happens to be agreeable, is the same equanimity chapter 2 demanded toward outcomes, here relocated to the felt texture of the task. The mark of the true tyāgī: no aversion to the unpleasant task, no clinging to the pleasant one — BG 2.57’s “neither rejoices nor recoils,” now the definition of relinquishment.
Study deeper
Word by word
- na dveṣṭy akuśalaṃ karmaन द्वेष्ट्य् अकुशलं कर्म
- he does not hate disagreeable action (na + dveṣṭi + akuśalam + karma)
- kuśale nānuṣajjateकुशले नानुषज्जते
- nor cling to the agreeable (kuśale + na + anuṣajjate)
- tyāgī sattvasamāviṣṭoत्यागी सत्त्वसमाविष्टो
- the relinquisher, pervaded by sattva (tyāgī + sattva-samāviṣṭaḥ)
- medhāvī chinnasaṃśayaḥमेधावी छिन्नसंशयः
- wise, his doubt cut off (medhāvī + chinna-saṃśayaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The profile is drawn entirely in negatives — doesn’t hate the unpleasant task, isn’t attached to the pleasant one — with no positive description of what this person actually feels while working supplied at all. Defining a state by what it refuses on both sides, rather than by any feeling it does have, is the same move avyakta gets defined by elsewhere in this text: some things in the Gita are easier to point at by what they aren’t than by what they are.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- You don't need to manufacture a positive feeling toward a task you dislike — defining your target as 'neither dreading it nor craving the fun alternative' is enough, and often more achievable than forcing yourself to feel good about it.
Professional
- Apply the same double-negative standard to your workload: aim for neither resenting the tedious tickets nor over-identifying with the exciting ones. That even-handedness toward the work itself, not a manufactured love for all of it, is what steadiness at work actually looks like.
Family & Social
- With household chores, don't try to feel enthusiastic about the boring ones or guilty about preferring the fun ones — aim for neither resenting one nor craving the other, and let that even-handedness do the work equanimity usually gets credited for.
Ask yourself
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