Sanskrit
दुःखमित्येव यत्कर्म कायक्लेशभयात्त्यजेत् । स कृत्वा राजसं त्यागं नैव त्यागफलं लभेत् ॥ ८ ॥
duḥkham ity eva yat karma kāyakleśabhayāt tyajet sa kṛtvā rājasaṃ tyāgaṃ naiva tyāgaphalaṃ labhet
Translation
He who relinquisheth an action from fear of physical suffering, saying "Painful," thus performing a passionate relinquishment, obtaineth not the fruit of relinquishment.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The middle case: relinquishing action from fear of physical hardship — calling it “painful” and quitting — is rajasic. Such a person may look identical to the sattvic relinquisher from the outside, since both stop acting, but the motive is self-protection rather than clarity, and Krishna is explicit that this earns no reward: the passionate relinquisher “obtaineth not the fruit of relinquishment” at all. Rājasic relinquishment: quitting because the work is hard — kāya-kleśa-bhaya, fear of bodily strain. It is still a form of attachment (to comfort), so na tyāga-phalaṃ labhet, it earns none of relinquishment’s fruit.
Study deeper
Word by word
- duḥkham ity eva yat karmaदुःखं इत्य् एव यत् कर्म
- whatever action, [thinking] merely 'it is painful' (duḥkham + iti + eva + yat + karma)
- kāyakleśabhayāt tyajetकायक्लेशभयात् त्यजेत्
- one gives up from fear of bodily trouble (kāya-kleśa-bhayāt + tyajet)
- sa kṛtvā rājasaṃस कृत्वा राजसं
- having made such rājasic relinquishment (saḥ + kṛtvā + rājasam + tyāgam)
- tyāgaṃ naiva tyāgaphalaṃ labhetत्यागं नैव त्यागफलं लभेत्
- he gains none of the fruit of relinquishment (na + eva + tyāga-phalam + labhet)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verse specifies exactly how the rajasic quitter explains himself — by saying, out loud or to himself, “this is painful.” The sattvic actor in verse 9 offers no commentary on how the work feels at all, only that it ought to be done; the tell, this text suggests, isn’t whether a task feels hard, it’s whether you’re narrating the hardship as your reason for stopping.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're about to quit something and hear yourself explaining it as 'this is painful,' pause on that phrasing itself — it's often the reason speaking, not the difficulty. A task can be hard without being wrong to keep doing.
Professional
- Watch for team members justifying dropping a hard task by narrating how painful or draining it feels, rather than citing a real change in scope or priority — the narration itself is often a more honest signal than the stated reason.
Family & Social
- If you catch yourself avoiding a needed hard conversation with family by dwelling on how painful it will be, notice that the dwelling is doing the deciding — naming the discomfort isn't the same as it being the wrong conversation to have.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.