कामात्मानः स्वर्गपरा जन्मकर्मफलप्रदाम्। क्रियाविशेषबहुलां भोगैश्वर्यगतिं प्रति॥
kāmātmānaḥ svarga-parā janma-karma-phala-pradām / kriyā-viśeṣa-bahulāṃ bhogaiśvarya-gatiṃ prati
Elaborate rituals for pleasure and power lead to rebirth — not liberation. The cycle continues.
Word by word (4)
- kāmātmānaḥ svarga-parāḥ
- — those whose self is desire, whose goal is heaven · 'Kāmātmānaḥ' — one whose very self (ātman) has become desire (kāma). When desire becomes identity, the teaching cannot land.
- janma-karma-phala-pradām
- — giving birth as the fruit of action
- kriyā-viśeṣa-bahulām
- — prescribing many elaborate rites
- bhogaiśvarya-gatiṃ prati
- — for the attainment of pleasure and power · The circular trap: desire-driven ritual generates karma which requires another birth to exhaust, which generates new desire. The cycle perpetuates itself.
'...full of desires, with heaven as their highest goal, they prescribe many elaborate rituals for attaining pleasure and power — rituals that result only in rebirth as their ultimate fruit.'
A modern analogy
Optimizing for the wrong goal: if your highest aim is comfort and status (the Vedic ritual version: heaven, pleasure, power), you will get cycles of temporary satisfaction and renewed craving. You will be very busy. You will achieve things. And then you will want more, and the cycle continues. The Gita names this explicitly: such activity results in 'janma-karma-phala-pradā' — giving birth to further action-results, further lives, further cycles.
Take with you
- 'Kāmātmānaḥ' — those whose very self is desire. When desire becomes identity, the teaching cannot land.
- The critique: action aimed at pleasure and power produces more action, more results, more bondage — not liberation.
- The alternative (Karma Yoga) is introduced by contrast: act without desire for fruits (V47).
V43 completes the critique of ritual-for-reward: such action results in 'janma-karma-phala' — the fruit of action is another birth. The very success of desire-driven action extends the cycle of rebirth, because desire fulfilled generates new desire, which requires new action, which generates new karma, which requires another birth. The alternative — nishkama karma (desireless action) — breaks this cycle not by suppressing action but by removing the attachment that makes action binding.
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
...full of desires, with heaven as their goal, they speak many elaborate sacrificial rites for the attainment of pleasure and power, bearing repeated birth as the fruit of actions. [4]
Of those deluded ones — full of desire, seeking heaven — the elaborate rites lead to repeated rebirth. [7]
...full of desires, with heaven as their highest goal, they describe many special kinds of rites for the attainment of pleasure and power, giving rise to repeated births through their actions. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Your right is to act — never to the fruits. Don't act for results. Don't hide in inaction.
Vedic ritualists drink soma, seek heaven — purified of sin, they attain Indra's realm and enjoy celestial pleasures.
Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.
All actions free from desire and intention; karmas burned by jñāna's fire — the wise call this one paṇḍita.
The eternal renunciant neither desires nor hates — free from all opposites, easily freed from bondage.
Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.