Sanskrit
युक्तः कर्मफलं त्यक्त्वा शान्तिमाप्नोति नैष्ठिकीम् । अयुक्तः कामकारेण फले सक्तो निबध्यते ॥
yuktaḥ karmaphalaṃ tyaktvā śāntim āpnoti naiṣṭhikīm ayuktaḥ kāmakāreṇa phale sakto nibadhyate
Translation
The harmonised man, having abandoned the fruit of action, attaineth to the eternal Peace; the non-harmonised, impelled by desire, attached to fruit, are bound.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The contrast is stark and binary: yukta (harmonized, disciplined) against ayukta (undisciplined), with the fruit of action as the fork in the road. Naiṣṭhikī śānti — “steadfast” or “final” peace — is qualified precisely because ordinary peace is provisional, dependent on circumstance, while this peace survives outcome because it was never staked on outcome. The bound state described here, fastened to fruit by the compulsion of desire, reads less as a moral failing than a mechanical account of how craving works — wanting a specific result hands that result power over one’s peace of mind.