Shloka
निश्चयं शृणु मे तत्र त्यागे भरतसत्तम |
त्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र त्रिविधः सम्प्रकीर्तितः ||१८-४||Transliteration
niścayaṃ śṛṇu me tatra tyāge bharatasattama .
tyāgo hi puruṣavyāghra trividhaḥ samprakīrtitaḥ ||18-4||Translations
Dr.S.Sankaranarayan
18.4. O best of Bharata’s descendants ! Listen to My considered view about relinishing : Indeed the act of relinishing is rightly spoken to be three-fold, O best among men !
Shri Purohit Swami
18.4 O best of Indians! Listen to my judgment as regards this problem. It has a threefold aspect.
Sri Abhinav Gupta
18.4 See Comment under 18.11
Sri Ramanuja
18.4 Regarding contradictory versions on Tyaga among disputants, listen from Me My decision. Tyaga has been described by Me in respect of actions prescribed by the scriptures from three points of view: (1) as referring to fruits, (2) as referring to acts themselves and, (3) as referring to agency. It is contained in the statement, ‘Surrendering all your actions to Me with a mind focussed on the self,’ and ‘Free from desire and selfishness and cured of fever - fight’ (3.30). The renunciation of fruits consists in the following manner. ‘Heaven and such other results arising from acts do not belong to Me.’ Renunciation of acts is complete abandonment of the sense of possession in regard to one’s acts. This sense of possession is of the following nature: ‘Those acts are mine on account of their being the means for fruits which are to be mine.’ Renunciation referring to agency is the renunciation of agency of oneself by ascribing the agency to the Lord of all.
Sri Shankaracharya
18.4 Bharata-sattama, O the most excellent among the descendants of Bharata; srnu, hear, understand; me, from Me, from My statement; niscayam, the firm conclusion; tatra tyage, regarding that tyaga, regarding these alternative veiws on tyaga and sannyasa as they have been shown. Hi, for; purusavyaghra, O greatest among men; tyagah, tyaga; samprakirtitah, has been clearly declared, has been distinctly spoken of in the scriptures; to be trividhah, of three kinds, threefold, under the classes of tamasa (those based on tamas [Tamas: darkness, mental darkness, ignorance; one of the three alities of everything in Nature. Also see 14.8, and note under 2.45.-Tr.], etc. The Lord has used the word tyaga with the idea that the (primary) meanings of tyaga and sannyasa are verily the same. Since it is difficult to comprehend this idea, that the primary meanings of the words tyaga and sannyasa can be threefold under the classification based on tamas etc. in the case of one who is unenlightened and who is alified for rites and duties-but not in the case of one who has realized the supreme Goal-,therefore no one else is capable of speaking the truth in this connection. Hence, listen to the firm conclusion of the Lord with regard to the supreme Truth as revealved by the scriptures. Which, again, is this firm conclusion? In reply the Lord says:
Swami Adidevananda
18.4 Listen to My decision, O Arjuna, about abandonment; for abandonment (Tyaga) is declared to be of three kinds.
Swami Gambirananda
18.4 O the most excellent among the descendants of Bharata, hear from Me the firm conclusion regarding that tyaga. For, O greatest among men, tyaga has been clearly declared to be of three kinds.
Swami Sivananda
18.4 Hear from Me the conclusion or the final truth about this abandonment, O best of the Bharatas; abandonment, verily, O best of men, has been declared to be of three kinds.
Commentaries
Swami Sivananda
18.4 निश्चयम् conclusion or the final truth? श्रृणु hear? मे My? तत्र there? त्यागे about abandonment? भरतसत्तम O best of the Bharatas? त्यागः abandonment? हि verily? पुरुषव्याघ्र O best of men? त्रिविधः of three kinds? संप्रकीर्तितः has been declared (to be).Commentary Now the Lord gives His own decisive opinion. It is declared in the scriptures that renunciation is of three kinds? viz.? Sattvic? Rajasic and Tamasic. The Lord alone can teach the truth about the subject. Whoever wants to be liberated from the miseries of this world must understand the real nature of renunciation.