Sanskrit
युक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम् । अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥
yuktaḥ karmaphalaṃ tyaktvā śāntim āpnoti naiṣṭhikīm ayuktaḥ kāmakāreṇa phale sakto nibadhyate
Translation
The harmonised man, having abandoned the fruit of action, attaineth to the eternal Peace; the non-harmonised, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, are bound.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The contrast is stark and binary: yukta (harmonized, disciplined) against ayukta (undisciplined), with the fruit of action as the fork in the road. Naiṣṭhikī śānti — “steadfast” or “final” peace — is qualified precisely because ordinary peace is provisional, dependent on circumstance, while this peace survives outcome because it was never staked on outcome. The bound state described here, fastened to fruit by the compulsion of desire, reads less as a moral failing than a mechanical account of how craving works — wanting a specific result hands that result power over one’s peace of mind. Kāma-kāreṇa — “by the doing of [desire]” — makes the binding automatic: kāma attached to a result is what fastens the person to it. Remove the attachment and the same act leaves naiṣṭhikī śānti, a peace that outlasts the outcome.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yuktaḥ karmaphalaṃ tyaktvāयुक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा
- the disciplined one, giving up the fruit of action (yuktaḥ + karma-phalam + tyaktvā)
- śāntim āpnoti naiṣṭhikīmशान्तिं आप्नोति नैष्ठिकीं
- attains steadfast peace (śāntim + āpnoti + naiṣṭhikīm)
- ayuktaḥ kāmakāreṇaअयुक्तः कामकारेण
- the undisciplined one, driven by desire (ayuktaḥ + kāma-kāreṇa)
- phale sakto nibadhyateफले सक्तो निबध्यते
- attached to the fruit, is bound (phale + saktaḥ + nibadhyate)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verse offers exactly two categories, yukta and ayukta, with nothing built for the vast middle ground most people actually occupy — partially attached, sometimes released. Read charitably, that binary isn’t a claim that everyone sorts permanently into one box; it’s naming the two poles a given moment of action swings between. The “binary” turns out to describe a spectrum’s two ends, verse by verse re-applied to each new action, rather than two fixed types of people.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Don't judge yourself as permanently in the attached or detached camp based on how you handled one outcome — most days you're somewhere in between, swinging closer to one pole or the other depending on the specific stake involved, not sorted once and for all.
Professional
- When evaluating whether your team is outcome-obsessed or process-focused, resist the binary — most teams oscillate between the two poles by project, and the useful question is which pole a given decision needs, not which camp the team belongs to permanently.
Family & Social
- Don't label a family member as simply controlling or easygoing based on one incident — most people sit on a spectrum between the two poles that shifts by situation, and a fixed label usually says more about the moment you're remembering than the person.
Ask yourself
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