Bhagavad Gita · Sankhya YogaChapter 2, Shloka 51 (2.51)
Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्
कर्मजं बुद्धियुक्ता हि फलं त्यक्त्वा मनीषिणः
जन्मबन्धविनिर्मुक्ताः पदं गच्छन्त्यनामयम्
॥ 2.51 ॥
karmajaṃ buddhiyuktā hi phalaṃ tyaktvā manīṣiṇaḥ
janmabandhavinirmuktāḥ padaṃ gacchantyanāmayam
Translation
"The wise, endowed with even-minded understanding, giving up the fruit born of action, are freed from the bondage of birth and attain the state beyond sorrow."
Interpretation
From action to moksha. Here the final fruit of karma-yoga is clear — not just a good life, but freedom from the bondage of birth. The same action, but without attachment to the fruit — and that action becomes not bondage but the path to freedom.
"Janma-bandha" — birth itself is bondage. Shankaracharya: janmaiva bandhaḥ — birth itself is bondage; obtaining desirable and undesirable (good and bad) bodies — this is the fruit of action. The wise are freed from this bondage while still alive (in this very life), and go to the supreme abode of Vishnu, moksha.
"Anāmaya" — beyond sorrow. Āmaya = disease. Anāmaya = free of disease — Shankara: sarvopadrava-rahita, free of all afflictions.
Ramanuja: Those endowed with buddhi-yoga, giving up the fruit of action, while performing action, are freed from the bondage of birth and attain the state beyond sorrow — and this is well known in all the Upanishads.
An important difference — "while performing action". Ramanuja says clearly: karma kurvantaḥ — while performing action. Shankaracharya also offers an alternative reading, that from 2.49 up to here "buddhi-yoga" can also be understood as the vision of the highest truth (knowledge).
AI-assisted draft translation — under review.