Chapter 18 · Verse 24·Spoken by Krishna
यत्तु कामेप्सुना कर्म साहङ्कारेण वा पुनः।क्रियते बहुलायासं तद्राजसमुदाहृतम्
yat tu kāmepsunā karma sāhankāreṇa vā punaḥ kriyate bahulāyāsaṁ tad rājasam udāhṛitam
But the action that is done with much strain by one who seeks to satisfy desires or is full of ego: that is called rajasic.
Word by Word
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
his verse defines rajasic action, the kind of work driven by 'rajas', the quality of passion, restless energy, and craving. Krishna names its first and central mark: it is done by a 'kamepsu', one who craves the desired thing, one who works for the sake of the fruit or result. The action is not undertaken for its own rightness but as a means to get something wanted. This is the decisive contrast with sattvic action described just before, which is done without attachment to results.
Braided from 15 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Sivananda · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
The second mark is 'sa-ahankara', acting with egotism. The commentators are careful about which kind of ego this means. It is not the deep metaphysical 'I am the doer' delusion of the wholly ignorant, but the proud self-importance of one who claims authorship: the inward swagger of 'I alone am the skilled and learned one, who else is my equal?' Several read the word 'or' here not as an alternative but as 'and', a joining word, so that craving and ego accumulate together. The egotism is the conceit of agency, the proud claim 'this is done by me alone'.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Rāmānujācārya · Vallabhācārya · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrīla Baladeva · Swami Ramsukhdas
The third mark is 'bahula-ayasa', the action being accomplished with much toil, great effort, and excessive strain. Several commentators explain why such work is so strenuous: desire and ego are themselves the cause of the strain, because work done for a stake is no longer a quiet flow but a labour driven and burdened by what hangs on it. Some note that desire-prompted action also recurs without rest, since it returns again and again as long as the desire lasts.
Braided from 10 commentators
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Dhanapati Sūri · Rāmānujācārya · Vedānta Deśika · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīla Baladeva · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Ramsukhdas
A pointed observation in the Advaita commentators is that even the doer of a pure, sattvic act, if he does not know the Self, still has some ego; this is why a learned brahmin can be called 'egoless' only in a worldly, relative sense. So when the verse marks rajasic action with egotism, the meaning is that this ego is greater than that of the merely correct worker, and by the 'how much more' reasoning the rajasic and tamasic doers are far more egoistic. Only the liberated knower of the Self is truly free of craving and of the sense of being the doer.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Swami Sivananda
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators draw a careful scale of egotism and tie the verse to Self-knowledge. They distinguish the worldly, relative 'egolessness' credited to a learned brahmin from the true egolessness of the knower of the Self. The point is that a man without Self-knowledge always has some ego even when his act is pure and sattvic; therefore, by the reasoning of 'how much more', the rajasic worker has greater ego still. The truly egoless one, the knower of the Self, has no craving and is not even the doer of a sattvic action, much less of a rajasic one. One source adds that such a sage is 'aptakama', one in whom all desires are already fulfilled or burnt away in Self-knowledge, so no craving for any reward can arise in him.
Śaṅkarācārya · Śrī Ānandagiri · Śrī Nīlakaṇṭha · Swami Sivananda
Bhakti
These commentators dwell on the lived texture and the show of rajasic work. One catches two notes that are equally rajasic: outward showy effort and inward swagger, both present even when the work itself is correct in form, the rooted self-importance that says 'who else is my equal?' The other paints vivid pictures of the strain: a person spends his whole body and fortune for a selfish end, blows his own trumpet, parades his name as pious, yet shows no regard to father or teacher; such fruit-motived toil is likened to a rat excavating a mountain for one grain, a frog stirring the whole sea for moss, ants searching the underworld for a single particle, all this pain helplessly borne out of greed for results.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
This commentator lays out the three marks plainly (craving for a preferred fruit whether seen or unseen, holding oneself as the doer so the work is wrapped in 'I am doing this', and the great strain), and explains that the strain is caused by the craving and ego that drive the work; the more these are present, the more painful the doing. He then adds a practical caution: outwardly rajasic action may look more strenuous and accomplished than sattvic action, and many of the world's celebrated achievements are in fact rajasic. The seeker should not be impressed by such worldly weight, but should mark the absence of craving and ego as the better sign.
Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
If wanting a result and working hard makes action rajasic, does that condemn nearly all ambitious, accomplished work, and how do I tell impressive worldly achievement from genuinely good action?
The verse is not condemning effort or competence as such; it is naming the inner attitude behind the work. What makes action rajasic is the craving for the fruit, the proud claim that 'I alone am the doer', and the resulting strain, not the skill or scale of the work itself. The very same outward act can be done either as a quiet flow or as a labour for a personal stake, and it is the inward seizure by desire and the proud claim to authorship that mark it as rajasic, not the labour by itself.
Vallabhācārya · Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Swami Ramsukhdas
This is exactly why impressive worldly achievement is no reliable sign of good action. Rajasic work often looks more strenuous and more accomplished than sattvic work, and many famous achievements are in fact rajasic; their very weight comes from the strain that craving and ego pile onto them. So the seeker is told not to be impressed by worldly weight, but to read a quieter sign instead: the absence of craving for a preferred fruit and the absence of the conceit of doership.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrīdhara Svāmī
The deeper measure offered here is freedom from craving and from the sense of being the doer. The one truly free in action is the knower of the Self, in whom all desires are already fulfilled, so no longing for any reward can arise; he is not gripped by 'this is done by me alone'. You are not asked to abandon work, but to let the craving and the ego loosen, so that the same action is carried without the burden that makes it rajasic.
Śaṅkarācārya · Swami Sivananda · Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Notice that the world's most celebrated achievements are often rajasic: full of craving for a result, wrapped in the sense of 'I am the one doing this', and bearing great strain both in the doing and in living with the consequences. The strain itself is a clue. Where the craving and the ego are strong, the work stops being a quiet flow and becomes a labour for a stake, and so it grows heavier and more painful. So do not be impressed by the sheer worldly weight of an action, neither your own nor others'. Instead, learn to read the better sign: the absence of craving for a preferred fruit and the absence of the proud claim of doership. That quieter mark, not the visible effort or applause, is what tells you the action is rising toward sattva.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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