कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः । जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम् ॥
karma-jaṃ buddhi-yuktā hi phalaṃ tyaktvā manīṣiṇaḥ | janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ padaṃ gacchanty anāmayam ||
Wise action without fruit-seeking breaks the birth-cycle and leads to the sorrowless state.
Word by word (3)
- karma-jam phalam tyaktvā
- — having abandoned the fruit born of action · Karma-jam phalam = fruit that is 'born' from action. The word jana (born) emphasizes that results are natural offspring of action — abandoning them means breaking the parent-child identification, not denying that results exist.
- janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ
- — freed from the bondage of birth · Janma-bandha = the bonds forged by birth — the accumulated karma and ego-patterns that draw the soul back into embodiment. Vinirmuktā = thoroughly (vi+nir) freed. This is moksha described as freedom from the cycle of rebirth, not escape from present action.
- padaṃ anāmayam
- — the state free from all suffering / the sorrowless station · Anāmaya from a (without) + āmaya (disease, affliction). The goal is not some distant heaven but a qualitative state of being — one of no-suffering, no-affliction, no existential disease. This is moksha as a present quality rather than a post-death location.
The wise ones who act with awakened intelligence, abandoning the fruits of their actions, are freed from the bondage of birth and death — they reach the state of no-more-suffering.
A modern analogy
A teacher who spends decades educating students, never tracking outcomes or credit, acting purely from the love of bringing understanding to light — such a person creates no psychological debt. They are not haunted by 'did it matter?' They acted, they gave, they released. That quality of living is the sorrowless state — here, now.
Take with you
- Freedom from the 'birth-cycle' begins now — it is about breaking the cycle of reactive, desire-driven action.
- Every action done without clinging to its fruit is a small act of liberation.
- The wise do not suppress results or pretend they don't matter; they simply do not let results define them.
- Padaṃ anāmayam — 'the sorrowless station' — is available in this life as a quality of being, not a posthumous reward.
V51 describes the fruit of buddhi-yoga: janma-bandha-vinirmuktāḥ — freed from the bondage of birth. In the Gita's cosmology, the karma system perpetuates rebirth: desires create actions, actions create residues (saṃskāras), residues pull the soul into a new embodiment where those residues can be worked out. The cycle is not punishment but natural law — like compound interest on ego-investment. The buddhi-yukta who releases karma-jam phalam (the fruit born of action) does not generate the karmic residue that pulls toward rebirth. This does not mean passivity — the manīṣiṇaḥ (the wise, the thinking ones) continue to act fully. The difference is at the level of inner appropriation: the action passes through them without sticking.
Modern parallels
The psychology of 'learned helplessness' (Seligman) shows how repeated outcomes that feel uncontrollable destroy motivation and resilience. The inverse — acting from intrinsic worth regardless of outcome — is what psychologists call 'psychological safety' and 'self-determination.' The 'sorrowless state' (anāmaya) maps closely to what Abraham Maslow called self-actualization: acting from one's deepest nature rather than deficit-motivation.
Public-domain translations (5) compare all →
The wise ones, united with buddhi, abandoning the fruit born of action, freed from the bondage of birth and death, attain to that state which is free from evil. [1]
The wisdom-yoked sages, renouncing the fruits born of actions, are freed from the bondage of birth and go to the state that is free from all misery. [4]
Those who are wise in spiritual things forsake the fruit that is born of their deeds, and so freed from the bonds of birth, they go where there is no more suffering. [6]
With mind fixed on Me, actions consecrated, Such wise men reach a state of bliss beyond The chains of birth — pass from this world of grief To that which hath no grief. [7]
The wise possessed of understanding, abandoning the fruits born of action, freed from the shackles of birth, go to the blissful seat. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The wisdom-yoked person rises above good and bad karma alike. Yoga is supreme skill in action.
Nothing in this world purifies like jñāna. The karma-yogi finds it within themselves in time.
Thus freed from karma's bonds — both good and evil fruits — unified in renunciation-yoga, liberated, you come to Me.
Actions don't taint Me — I have no longing for their fruits. Whoever knows Me thus is not bound by their actions.
Five causes of action: body-locus, agent, various instruments, diverse efforts, and — fifth — the Divine/Fate.
Whatever action a person initiates with body, speech, and mind — right or the reverse — these five are its causes.