Speaker: Śrī Kṛṣṇa
रागी कर्मफलप्रेप्सुर्लुब्धो हिंसात्मकोऽशुचिः ।
हर्षशोकान्वितः कर्ता राजसः परिकीर्तितः ॥२७॥
rāgī karma-phala-prepsur
lubdho hiṁsātmako 'śuciḥ
harṣa-śokānvitaḥ kartā
rājasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ
Word for word (synonyms)
- rāgī
- very much attached
- karma-phala
- to the fruit of the work
- prepsuḥ
- desiring
- lubdhaḥ
- greedy
- hiṁsā-ātmakaḥ
- and always envious
- aśuciḥ
- unclean
- harṣa-śoka-anvitaḥ
- complicated, with joy and sorrow
- kartā
- such a worker
- rājasaḥ
- in the mode of passion
- parikīrtitaḥ
- is declared
Translation
But that worker who is attached to the fruits of his labor and who passionately wants to enjoy them, who is greedy, envious and impure and moved by happiness and distress, is a worker in the mode of passion.
Defined in the Gītā
Happiness
What is real happiness?
O best of the Bhāratas, now please hear from Me about the three kinds of happiness which the conditioned soul enjoys, and by which he sometimes comes to the end of all distress. That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.
Purport
A person is too much attached to certain kind of work or to the result because he has too much attachment for materialism or hearth and home, wife and children. Such a person has no desire for higher elevation of life. He is simply concerned with making this world as materially comfortable as possible. He is generally very greedy, and he thinks that anything attained by him is permanent and never to be lost. Such a person is envious of others and prepared to do anything wrong for sense gratification. Therefore such a person is unclean, and he does not care whether his earning is pure or impure. He is very happy if his work is successful and very much distressed when his work is not successful. Such is a man in the mode of passion.
What this verse teaches
Worker (karta) in three modes
| Goodness | Passion | Ignorance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The worker | free from all material attachments and false ego, who is enthusiastic and resolute and who is indifferent to success or failure 18.26 | attached to the fruits of his labor and who passionately wants to enjoy them, who is greedy, envious and impure and moved by happiness and distress 18.27 | materialistic, obstinate, cheating and expert in insulting others, who is lazy, always morose and procrastinating 18.28 |
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.