Chapter 17 · Verse 25·Spoken by Krishna
तदित्यनभिसन्धाय फलं यज्ञतपःक्रियाः।दानक्रियाश्च विविधाः क्रियन्ते मोक्षकाङ्क्षि
tad ity anabhisandhāya phalaṁ yajña-tapaḥ-kriyāḥ dāna-kriyāśh cha vividhāḥ kriyante mokṣha-kāṅkṣhibhiḥ
After uttering "Tat," those who seek liberation perform acts of sacrifice, austerity, and the various acts of giving without aiming at the fruits.
Word by Word
Saved for this reading session
Three movements · tap a label to switch
Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
Synthesis · a glossed leaf
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
his verse explains the second of the three sacred words named in the formula 'Om Tat Sat.' Krishna says that those who long for liberation perform their many acts of sacrifice (yajna), austerity (tapas), and giving (dana) after uttering 'Tat,' which is a well-known name of Brahman, the supreme reality. The reader should notice the chapter's design: the previous verse handled 'Om,' and this one takes up 'Tat,' so the verse is one panel in a larger picture of how a sacred utterance consecrates an act. The commentators agree that 'Tat,' literally 'That,' points beyond all describable things to the ultimate; several note its scriptural pedigree, citing the great sentence 'That thou art' (tat tvam asi) and the Gayatri's 'tat savitur,' where 'Tat' stands for Brahman.
Braided from 11 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Ramsukhdas
The decisive phrase is 'anabhisandhaya phalam,' which the commentators read as 'without aiming at the fruit' or 'without making any intention upon the reward.' The seeker does the act but releases its outcome. He does not perform the sacrifice or the gift in order to gain heaven, pleasure, or any private benefit. Madhva states this with great economy: the act is done without the intention 'let the fruit of that be mine.' Sivananda and Jnaneshwari put it as the inward word 'Not mine,' spoken over the act and its result. So 'Tat' is not a mere label; it is the verbal seal of an inner renunciation, the doer letting go of his claim on what the act produces.
Braided from 13 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Madhvācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Ramsukhdas
The commentators draw out why this matters: surrendering the fruit purifies the inner instrument and ripens the doer toward liberation. Madhusudana says the acts are done 'for the sake of purity of the inner organ' (antahkarana). Sridhara explains that uttering 'Tat' works 'by the route of cleansing the citta,' that is, by drawing the doer out of the craving for results (phala-samkalpa) and into the disposition of one who genuinely seeks freedom (mumuksu). Baladeva adds that because the word frees the act from desire and so brings about the very longing for liberation, 'Tat' is a word 'of great power.' The act itself is not abolished; it is the attachment to its reward that is dissolved, and that dissolution is what makes the deed serve the goal of moksha.
Braided from 6 commentators
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Several commentators read the consecration as an actual offering of the act and its fruit back into Brahman, by which the deed is transformed in its very nature. Sivananda says the action sanctified by 'Om' at the start and given to 'That' is 'transformed into the nature of Brahman,' so that the doer is freed from egoism and the bondage of karma. Jnaneshwari has the seekers say, 'Let all the actions with their fruit be dedicated to the Tat, leaving no residue for us to enjoy,' shaking off all liability by the words 'Not Mine.' Vallabha calls this release of the fruit into Brahman the very thing that 'raises the sattvika act into something offered, no longer a possession of the doer.' The word, then, does real work: it changes a possessed deed into a surrendered one.
Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
For these commentators 'Tat' is read against the backdrop of non-dual knowledge: it is the name of the one Brahman declared in 'That thou art,' and the seeker's task is purification of the inner organ so that this identity can be realized. Nilakantha presses this furthest. He says all acts are done with the conviction 'all this is Brahman,' citing the Gita's own line that the offering is Brahman, the oblation is Brahman, offered by Brahman in the Brahman-fire, so that one reaches Brahman by Brahman-fixed action. On this reading, uttering 'Tat' is not only the renouncing of fruit but a contemplation that resolves the whole act, its means, and its result into Brahman. Nilakantha also notes that 'aiming at Tat' is implied alongside 'not aiming at fruit,' so the construction is: not aiming at the reward, but aiming at That.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri
Viśiṣṭādvaita
These commentators specify that the acts are those of the men of the three twice-born classes and add the study of the Veda alongside sacrifice, austerity, and giving. Their stress is that these acts are the very means of attaining Brahman, and precisely because they are such means they deserve to be designated by 'Tat,' the word that names Brahman. The logic runs from the acts to the name: an act that leads to Brahman is fitly marked with Brahman's word. 'Tat' designates Brahman as the inner aim of the discipline, and the acts performed with this aim and without fruit-attachment constitute the liberation-seeker's path.
Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika
Dvaita
Madhva fixes the sense of the renunciation tightly: it is done without the intention 'let the fruit of that be mine.' Jayatirtha clarifies the grammar and reach of the verse. The point being established, he says, is that the word 'Tat' applies to sacrifice and the like just as it applies to Brahman; and 'the fruit' here that is not aimed at means 'what is stated by the Veda,' namely heaven and the rest. So the seeker forgoes the Vedically promised rewards while performing the very Vedic acts, and the word 'Tat' rightly attaches to those acts.
Madhvācārya · Śrī Jayatīrtha
Śuddhādvaita
Read from the Pushtimarga, this verse is about grace and offering. Vallabha holds that Brahman alone is the true fruit; the worldly notion that some other reward is the fruit is set aside. Uttering 'Tat,' the seeker releases the fruit of the act into Brahman, and this release is precisely what lifts the sattvika act into something offered, no longer the doer's possession. Purushottama, addressing the jnani (where 'Om' had addressed the bhakta), calls the utterance of 'Tat,' with the inward renouncing of every fruit except the gaining of Brahman, the 'seal' by which the act becomes an accomplisher of moksha. He folds the two together: the jnani's seeking and the bhakta's seeking are not separate paths but are gathered into the single threefold name of the same Purushottama, whose grace is the only sufficient fruit.
Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama
Bhakti
These commentators emphasize the purifying and dedicatory movement of the word. Sridhara reads 'Tat' as the utterance that supplies what was missing in dispassion (vairagya), drawing the doer out of the craving for results and into the seeker's disposition, just as 'Om' had supplied what was missing in the rule (vidhi). Baladeva calls 'Tat' a word of great power because, by freeing the act of desire, it brings about the very longing for liberation. Jnaneshwari makes the offering vivid: the seekers meditate on the Supreme Brahman beyond the universe, dedicate every action with its fruit to 'Tat,' and shake off all liability with the words 'Not Mine.' Jnaneshwar then adds a caution the others do not: even after this dedication, a subtle sense of being the doer can remain, like the salt-taste lingering after salt dissolves in water, and that is why a further word, 'Sat,' is still needed.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Viśvanātha · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
Sivananda dwells on what 'Tat' connotes: the immortal Self that transcends the world, the three gunas, the three bodies, and the three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep, and is the basis and source of all. To utter 'Tat' over an act is to say 'they are not mine,' giving away to Brahman what was begun with 'Om,' so that the doer is freed from egoism and attains Self-realization through purity of heart. Ramsukhdas, in his non-sectarian devotional voice, reframes the whole verse around the ever-present reality. Every act and its fruit have a beginning and an end, but Parmatma is before, during, and after them, his being eternal and unbroken; 'tat iti' turns the mind to that ever-present reality and 'anabhisandhaya phalam' keeps it from the perishable fruit. The acts are done solely for Parmatma's pleasure (prasannata) and for keeping his command, dropping the sense of 'I' and 'mine' in the world; and he notes that devotees in practice begin every act with names like Rama, Krishna, Govinda, Narayana, Vasudeva, and Shiva, which are themselves expressions of 'Tat.'
Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If I am supposed to do the work yet want nothing from it, what actually keeps me going, and how is that different from not caring about the outcome at all?
The verse does not ask you to stop acting or to do the work carelessly. The seekers here perform many demanding acts of sacrifice, austerity, and giving, and they perform them fully. What changes is not the effort but the claim: the act is done 'without aiming at the fruit,' without the inner intention 'let the reward of this be mine.' So this is the opposite of not caring. Not caring would do the work badly; this does the work well and then lets go of owning its result.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhvācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Swami Sivananda
What keeps the seeker going is a different aim, not no aim. The word 'Tat' supplies it. Some read the act as actually offered into Brahman, dedicated with the words 'Not Mine,' so that the deed is transformed and the doer is freed from egoism and the bondage of karma. Others put the aim positively as Brahman itself: not aiming at the perishable reward, but aiming at That. In a non-sectarian devotional framing, the act is done for the Lord's pleasure and for keeping his command, because everything you call your own already belongs to him.
Swami Sivananda · Sant Jñāneśvar · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Swami Ramsukhdas
And the practice is not empty of result; it simply moves the result inward. Letting go of the fruit purifies the inner instrument and draws the doer out of craving and into genuine seeking, which is why the commentators call 'Tat' a word of great power and say it ripens the seeker toward liberation. You keep going because the act is now cleansing you and carrying you toward freedom, which is a far steadier motive than the private reward you released.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva
Contemplation
Take one ordinary act today and do it the way this verse describes. Before you begin, turn the mind for a moment to the reality that was there before the act began, will be there after it ends, and is unchanged while it runs; everything you call your own, your body, senses, mind, and even yourself, belongs to that. Then do the act not for any reward to yourself but for the pleasure of the Lord and for keeping his command, letting the sense of 'I am the doer' and 'this is mine' quietly drop. Ramsukhdas points out that this is exactly what devotees do when they begin a task with a holy name like Rama, Krishna, Narayana, or Shiva, words that are themselves ways of saying 'Tat.' The real fruitfulness of your strength and intelligence, he says, lies here: in 'We are the Lord's, and the Lord is ours,' doing every act for that alone.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, tap a name in The seating.