4.22
Chapter 4, Verse 22
यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टो द्वन्द्वातीतो विमत्सरः। समः सिद्धावसिद्धौ च कृत्वापि न निबध्यते৷৷
yadṛcchālābhasantuṣṭō dvandvātītō vimatsaraḥ. samaḥ siddhāvasiddhau ca kṛtvāpi na nibadhyatē৷৷
Translation
Content with what comes to him without effort of his own, mounting above the pairs of opposites, free from envy, his mind balanced both in success and failure; though he acts, yet the consequences do not bind him.
Translation — Purohit Swami
Commentary
यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टः content with what comes to him without effort, द्वन्द्वातीतः free from the pairs of,opposites, विमत्सरः free from envy, समः evenminded, सिद्धौ in success, असिद्धौ in failure, च and, कृत्वा acting, अपि even, न not, निबध्यते is bound. Commentary: The sage is ite satisfied with what comes to him by chance. In verses IV. 18, 19, 20, 22, 22 and 23 there is only a reiteration of the results of the knowledge of the Self which is beyond action. The sage who identifies himself with the actionless Self is not bound as action and its cause which bind one to the round of birth and death have been burnt in the fire of the knowledge of the Self or BrahmaJnana. Just as a seed burnt in the fire cannot germinate, so also the Karmas or actions burnt by the fire of knowledge of the Self cannot produce future birth.Ordinary people think that the sage is also a doer of actions, an agent, active and therefore bound, when they see him doing actions. This is a mistake. From his own point of view and, in truth, he is not an agent at all. He really does no action at all. He feels and says, I do nothing at all. Nature does or the three alities of Nature do everything.He is not affected by heat and cold, pleasure and pain, success and failure, as he always has a balanced state of mind. He is not attached even to the things which are necessary for the bare maintenance of his body. He experiences neither pleasure nor pain, whether or not he obtains food and the other things which are reired for the maintenance of his body. The reason is that he is resting in his essential nature as ExistenceKnowledgeBliss Absolute (SatchidanandaSvarupa) he is swimming in the ocean of bliss. So he does not care for his body and its needs.
Commentary — Swami Sivananda
Sanskrit and transliteration of the Bhagavad Gita. Corpus compiled from the vedabase and the IIT Kanpur Gita Supersite.