Chapter 9, Verse 28
शुभाशुभफलैरेवं मोक्ष्यसे कर्मबन्धनैः | संन्यासयोगयुक्तात्मा विमुक्तो मामुपैष्यसि ||९-२८||
śubhāśubhaphalairevaṃ mokṣyase karmabandhanaiḥ . saṃnyāsayogayuktātmā vimukto māmupaiṣyasi ||9-28||
Meaning
9.28 Thus shalt thou be freed from the bonds of actions yielding good and evil fruits; with the mind steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, thou shalt come unto Me.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna reveals the liberating fruit of the practice he has just described. When every action is offered to the Divine, it ceases to bind. The 'good and evil fruits' (shubha-ashubha-phala) of karma no longer chain the doer, because the doer has surrendered the very claim to those fruits. What binds is not action itself but our attachment to its results.
This is the sannyasa-yoga — the yoga of renunciation — but a renunciation not of work, rather of grasping. Acting while offering everything to God, the soul becomes vimukta, liberated, and 'comes unto Me.' Here the chapter's threads converge: devotion (bhakti) and the discipline of selfless action (karma-yoga) are revealed as one path. To dedicate all one does to the Divine is, at once, to love God and to be freed from the bondage of one's own deeds.
💡 Key Takeaway
Offer your actions to the Divine and release attachment to their outcomes; this very surrender is what sets you free.
Related Verses
श्रीभगवानुवाच | इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे | ज्ञानं विज्ञानसहितं यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेऽशुभात् ||९-१||
śrībhagavānuvāca . idaṃ tu te guhyatamaṃ pravakṣyāmyanasūyave . jñānaṃ vijñānasahitaṃ yajjñātvā mokṣyase.aśubhāt ||9-1||
9.1 The Blessed Lord said I shall now declare to thee who does not cavil, the greatest secret, the knowledge combined with experience (Self-realisation). Having known this thou shalt be free evil.
प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुनः पुनः | भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ||९-८||
prakṛtiṃ svāmavaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ . bhūtagrāmamimaṃ kṛtsnamavaśaṃ prakṛtervaśāt ||9-8||
9.8 Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless by the force of the Nature.
न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय | उदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु ||९-९||
na ca māṃ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya . udāsīnavadāsīnamasaktaṃ teṣu karmasu ||9-9||
9.9 These acts do not bind Me, O Arjuna, sitting like one indifferent, unattached to those acts.