Sanskrit
यस्य सर्वे समारम्भाः कामसङ्कल्पवर्जिताः । ज्ञानाग्निदग्धकर्माणं तमाहुः पण्डितं बुधाः ॥
yasya sarve samārambhāḥ kāma-saṅkalpa-varjitāḥ jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇaṃ tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṃ budhāḥ
Translation
Whose works are all free from the moulding of desire, whose actions are burned up by the fire of wisdom, him the wise have called a Sage.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Describes the person who has resolved verse 18’s paradox: undertakings free of desire’s shaping influence, actions “burned up by the fire of wisdom.” The fire metaphor introduced at verse 10 becomes explicit machinery here — wisdom doesn’t stop action from happening, it consumes the karmic residue that action would otherwise generate, which is exactly the mechanism verses 37-38 will return to at the chapter’s close. Kāma-saṅkalpa — “desire and the intention it forms” — names what has to be absent: not the deed, but the wanting that shapes it. Remove that, and BG 4.37 says the jñāna-fire reduces even past actions to ash.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yasya sarve samārambhāḥयस्य सर्वे समारंभाः
- whose every undertaking (yasya + sarve + samārambhāḥ)
- kāma-saṅkalpa-varjitāḥकाम-सङ्कल्प-वर्जिताः
- is free of desire and intent (kāma-saṅkalpa-varjitāḥ)
- jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇaṃज्ञानाग्नि-दग्ध-कर्माणं
- his actions burnt by the fire of knowledge (jñāna-agni-dagdha-karmāṇam)
- tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṃ budhāḥतं आहुः पण्डितं बुधाः
- him the wise call learned (tam + āhuḥ + paṇḍitam + budhāḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
“Paṇḍita” ordinarily connotes scholarly or priestly learning, but here the word is redefined by a purely motivational criterion: freedom from desire’s shaping influence on action, nothing about credentials or accumulated knowledge. The Gita is quietly relocating what counts as wisdom away from the conventional markers the word itself usually implies.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Being genuinely wise or skilled isn't measured by credentials or how much you know, but by whether craving still shapes what you do — someone with fewer credentials but less craving-driven action may be closer to the real thing.
Professional
- The most senior-sounding title in the room doesn't automatically make someone the person to trust with a decision — watch whose actions are least shaped by personal stake in the outcome, since that's often the more reliable signal of sound judgment.
Family & Social
- Respect within a family shouldn't default to whoever is most accomplished on paper — notice instead whose actions are least driven by self-interest; that's a better marker of who's actually worth trusting.
Ask yourself
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