|| 18.12 ||
अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम्। भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित्।।
aniṣṭam iṣṭaṁ miśraṁ ca tri-vidhaṁ karmaṇaḥ phalam bhavaty atyāgināṁ pretya na tu sannyāsināṁ kvacit
Word by Word
aniṣṭam (undesirable) iṣṭam (desirable) miśram (mixed) ca (and) tri-vidham (threefold) karmaṇaḥ (of work) phalam (the fruit) bhavati (becomes) atyāginām (for those who are not renounced) pretya (after death) na (never) tu (but) sannyāsinām (for the renounced) kvacit (ever).
Translation
For one who is not renounced, the threefold fruits of action—desirable, undesirable and mixed—accrue after death. But those who are in the renounced order of life have no such result to suffer or enjoy.
Meaning
Kṛṣṇa explains the ‘Bank Balance’ of Karma. For those who are not renounced (‘Atyāginām’), their actions produce three kinds of results after death: 1) ‘Aniṣṭam’ (bad karma leading to hellish life), 2) ‘Iṣṭam’ (good karma leading to heavenly life), or 3) ‘Miśram’ (mixed karma leading to human life). But for the true sannyāsīs, there is *no* such result to suffer or enjoy. They are off the wheel entirely.
This is the ultimate ‘Debt Cancellation’. As long as we think we are the owners of our work, we have to ‘pay’ for the results, whether good or bad. We are forced to take new bodies to collect our karmic paycheck. But the moment we renounce the fruit, our account is closed. The sannyāsī is ‘Zero-balanced’. He doesn’t get a ‘better’ cage in the material world; he gets the freedom of the spiritual sky.
It teaches us that even ‘good’ results are a form of bondage because they force us to take birth again. We should aim for the sannyāsī stage, where we act purely for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure. By doing this, we stop accumulating ‘residue’ in our lives. We become like a sun that burns up its own shadows. Real success is not having a big pile of ‘good’ results, but having no results at all to tie us down.