Sanskrit
यस्य सर्वे समारम्भाः कामसङ्कल्पवर्जिताः । ज्ञानाग्निदग्धकर्माणं तमाहुः पण्डितं बुधाः ॥
yasya sarve samārambhāḥ kāma-saṅkalpa-varjitāḥ jñānāgni-dagdha-karmāṇaṃ tam āhuḥ paṇḍitaṃ budhāḥ
Translation
Whose works are all free from the moulding of desire, whose actions are burned up by the fire of wisdom, him the wise have called a Sage.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Describes the person who has resolved verse 18’s paradox: undertakings free of desire’s shaping influence, actions “burned up by the fire of wisdom.” The fire metaphor introduced at verse 10 becomes explicit machinery here — wisdom doesn’t stop action from happening, it consumes the karmic residue that action would otherwise generate, which is exactly the mechanism verses 37-38 will return to at the chapter’s close.
Concepts