न द्वेष्ट्य् अकुशलं कर्म कुशले नानुषज्जते । त्यागी सत्त्वसमाविष्टो मेधावी छिन्नसंशयः ॥
na dveṣṭy akuśalaṃ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate | tyāgī sattva-samāviṣṭo medhāvī chinna-saṃśayaḥ ||
The sāttvic tyāgī: neither hates difficult action nor clings to pleasant — sattva-pervaded, wise, doubts severed.
Word by word (3)
- na dveṣṭy akuśalaṃ karma kuśale nānuṣajjate
- — he does not hate (na dveṣṭi) unpleasant/inauspicious action (akuśalam karma = unskillful/bad action here meaning difficult/unwanted prescribed action), and does not cling (na anusajjate = does not stick-to/become attached) to pleasant/auspicious action (kuśale = skillful/good)
- tyāgī sattva-samāviṣṭo medhāvī chinna-saṃśayaḥ
- — the tyāgī (one who has practiced tyāga), filled with/pervaded by sattva (sattva-samāviṣṭa), intelligent/wise (medhāvī = possessing medhā/discrimination), with doubts cut asunder (chinna-saṃśayaḥ = whose saṃśaya/doubts are severed)
- chinna-saṃśayaḥ
- — whose doubts are cut (chinna = cut/severed; saṃśayaḥ = doubts) — the doubts that were present at the start of the Gita (Arjuna's saṃśaya at Ch.18 V73 will be resolved); the tyāgī's doubts about whether to act or not, about which duty to follow, are all resolved through the sāttvic tyāga posture
He neither hates unpleasant action nor clings to pleasant action — this tyāgī, pervaded by sattva, wise, with doubts cut asunder.
A modern analogy
V10 describes the inner portrait of the sāttvic tyāgī: someone who takes on the tough assignments without complaint AND doesn't get over-invested in the enjoyable ones. No avoidance of difficulty, no clinging to ease. The sattva-pervaded person with chinna-saṃśaya (severed doubts) knows exactly what their duty is and performs it — regardless of whether it is pleasant or painful — with full inner equanimity.
V10 describes the inner psychology of the sāttvic tyāgī from V9. This verse completes the three-fold tyāga classification (V7-9) with the portrait of the ideal. The sāttvic tyāgī's inner signs are: no dveṣa (hatred) toward difficult prescribed acts, no rāga (attachment) toward pleasant ones, pervaded by sattva, medhāvī (discriminating intelligence), chinna-saṃśaya (doubts resolved). These are the qualities that naturally arise when one practices kāryam ity eva saṅga-phala-tyāga (V9) consistently.
Chinna-saṃśaya (doubts severed) is the culminating quality: the Gita opens with Arjuna's saṃśaya (V1.47: vāsāṃsi jīrṇāni) and the entire teaching is aimed at its resolution. Here at Ch.18 V10, the sāttvic tyāgī's saṃśaya is described as already chinna (cut through) — a foreshadowing of Arjuna's own resolution at V18.73 (naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labdhā). The path from V1's saṃśaya to V18's chinna-saṃśaya is the Gita's arc.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
He hates not evil action, nor is he attached to a good one — he who has abandoned, pervaded by Sattva and possessed of wisdom, his doubts cut asunder. [1]
MISSING from index. [4]
He who is possessed of abandonment, being full of goodness, and talented, and having his doubts destroyed, is not averse from unpleasant actions, is not attached to pleasant ones. [9]
Possessed of intelligence and with doubts dispelled, an abandoner that is endowed with the quality of goodness has no aversion for an unpleasant action and no attachment to pleasant ones. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Dying in rajas, one is born among the action-attached; dying in tamas, one is born in irrational wombs.
The fruit of sattvic action is pure; the fruit of rajas is pain; the fruit of tamas is ignorance.
Yajña, dāna, and tapas must NOT be abandoned — they must be performed; they are purifiers of the wise.
Do My work, hold Me supreme, be My devotee, attachment-free, without enmity toward all — such a one comes to Me!
Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.
Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.