In plain words
Content with whatever comes unsought, beyond the pairs of opposites and free from envy, equal in success and failure, one is not bound even while acting.
Word for word
Content with what comes unsought, beyond the pairs of opposites, free of envy, even in success and failure, though having acted, he is not bound.
The commentators
Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
त्यक्तसर्वपरिग्रहस्य यतेः अन्नादेः शरीरस्थितिहेतोः परिग्रहस्य अभावात् याचनादिना शरीरस्थितौ कर्तव्यतायां प्राप्तायाम् ‘अयाचितमसङ्क्लृप्तमुपपन्नं यदृच्छया’(अश्व. ४६ । १९) इत्यादिना वचनेन अनुज्ञातं यतेः शरीरस्थितिहेतोः अन्नादेः प्राप्तिद्वारम् आविष्कुर्वन् आह —
यदृच्छालाभसन्तुष्टः अप्रार्थितोपनतो लाभो यदृच्छालाभः तेन सन्तुष्टः सञ्जातालंप्रत्ययः । द्वन्द्वातीतः द्वन्द्वैः शीतोष्णादिभिः हन्यमानोऽपि अविषण्णचित्तः द्वन्द्वातीतः उच्यते । विमत्सरः विगतमत्सरः निर्वैरबुद्दिः समः तुल्यः यदृच्छालाभस्य सिद्धौ असिद्धौ च । यः एवंभूतो यतिः अन्नादेः शरीरस्थितिहेतोः लाभालाभयोः समः हर्षविषादवर्जितः कर्मादौ अकर्मादिदर्शी यथाभूतात्मदर्शननिष्ठः सन् शरीरस्थितिमात्रप्रयोजने भिक्षाटनादिकर्मणि शरीरादिनिर्वर्त्ये ‘नैव किञ्चित् करोम्यहम्’(भ. गी. ५ । ८) , ‘गुणा गुणेषु वर्तन्ते’(भ. गी. ३ । २८) इत्येवं सदा सम्परिचक्षाणः आत्मनः कर्तृत्वाभावं पश्यन्नैव किञ्चित् भिक्षाटनादिकं कर्म करोति, लोकव्यवहारसामान्यदर्शनेन तु लौकिकैः आरोपितकर्तृत्वे भिक्षाटनादौ कर्मणि कर्ता भवति । स्वानुभवेन तु शास्त्रप्रमाणादिजनितेन अकर्तैव । स एवं पराध्यारोपितकर्तृत्वः शरीरस्थितिमात्रप्रयोजनं भिक्षाटनादिकं कर्म कृत्वापि न निबध्यते बन्धहेतोः कर्मणः सहेतुकस्य ज्ञानाग्निना दग्धत्वात् इति उक्तानुवाद एव एषः ॥ २२ ॥
In plain words
The monk has let go of every possession, so he keeps no store of food, nothing laid by to hold the body together. Keeping the body alive by asking and such means therefore falls to him as a duty. And scripture permits it: "unasked for, uncontrived, come of its own accord" (Aśvamedhika 46.19), and other lines like it. Showing that open door — the way a renunciant may come by the food that keeps his body standing — he says:
'Content with whatever gain comes by chance' means: a gain that arrives unsought is called a chance gain, and he is content with it, the feeling 'this is enough' having settled in him. 'Gone beyond the opposites' means: struck though he is by opposites like cold and heat, his mind never sinks, and that is why he is said to have gone beyond them. 'Without envy' means his envy is gone, his mind free of hostility. 'The same' means he stays equally steady whether that chance gain comes or doesn't. Such an ascetic, even-minded about whether he gets the food that sustains his body or not, free of both elation and dejection, seeing inaction within action, established in the true vision of the Self — when he goes on his alms-round, whose only purpose is keeping the body alive, an act carried out through the body and the rest, he constantly reflects, 'I do nothing at all,' 'the guṇas act on the guṇas,' and seeing that the Self has no agency in this at all, he isn't really doing anything, not even the alms-round itself. From the ordinary, everyday way people see things, ordinary people project agency onto him and take him to be the one doing the alms-round. But from his own experience, grounded in scripture and valid knowledge, he is simply not a doer at all. This person, on whom agency has only ever been projected from outside, though he performs the alms-round for the sake of bodily maintenance, is not bound by it — because action, which is what causes bondage, has been burnt away, cause and all, by the fire of knowledge. And this, again, is simply a restatement of what has already been said.
Close to the Sanskrit
For the renunciant who has abandoned all possessions, since there is no possession of food and the like, which is the cause of the body's continuance, and since the maintaining of the body by begging and such means has thereby become a duty that has fallen to him — making manifest the door of obtaining food and the like, the cause of the body's continuance, which is permitted for the renunciant by the statement beginning 'unbegged, uncontrived, come of its own accord' (Aśvamedhika 46.19) and by others like it — he says:
'Content with a chance gain' — a gain arrived unsought is 'a chance gain'; content with that, in whom the notion 'this is enough' has arisen. 'Gone beyond the pairs of opposites' — struck though he is by the pairs of opposites beginning with cold and heat, his mind undejected, he is called 'gone beyond the pairs of opposites.' 'Without envy' — his envy gone, his mind free of enmity. 'The same' — equally so, whether the chance gain succeeds or fails. Whoever, being thus, an ascetic, even-minded in gain and non-gain of food and the like, which sustains the body, free of joy and dejection, a seer of inaction and the like in action and the like, established in the vision of the Self as it truly is, being so, when performing the action of the alms-round and the like, whose purpose is only the maintenance of the body, accomplished by the body and the rest — 'I do not do anything at all' (Bhagavadgītā 5.8), 'the guṇas act upon the guṇas' (Bhagavadgītā 3.28) — reflecting thus, always, seeing the absence of the Self's agency, does not actually do anything at all, the action of the alms-round and the like; but by the ordinary view of common worldly dealing, agency being superimposed on him by ordinary people, in the action of the alms-round and the like, he seems to them to be the doer. But by his own experience, born of scripture, valid means of knowledge, and the like, he is simply no doer at all. He, in whom agency is thus externally superimposed, though he performs the action of the alms-round and the like, whose purpose is only the maintenance of the body, is not bound; because action, the cause of bondage, together with its cause, has been burnt away by the fire of knowledge. And this is nothing but a restatement of what has already been said. || 22 ||
Gītā Vāhini
పురుషార్థమును పూర్తిగా మాని సోమరిపోతులై జడ ప్రాయముగ ఉండు మూర్ఖుని ‘యదృచ్ఛాలాభాసంతుష్టుడ’నుట ఏ మాత్రము పొసగదు. సంతృప్తి జ్ఞాని సొత్తేగాని అన్యులకు లభించునట్టిది కాదు. అజ్ఞాని అసంతృప్తుడై అశాంతి గోతిలో, కోర్కెలపై కోర్కెలు, ప్లానులపై ప్లానులు వేయుచుండును. అంతటితో విడవక పరితపించుచూ పడరాని ఆరాటము పడుచూ హృదయమును ఉడికించును.
“బావా! సుఖదుఃఖములూ, జయాపజయములూ, లాభనష్టములనెడి ద్వంద్వముల ప్రభావములు జ్ఞానులయందు ఏ మాత్రమూ పెత్తనము చెలాయించవు. అతనిని ‘ద్వంద్వాతీతు’డని కూడా పిలుతురు. ఇతను ‘మచ్చరము’లను తుచ్ఛముగా యెంచి చెంత చేరనీయడు. ఇక ఆత్మస్వరూప స్వభావములా? అది ‘అసంగము’. ఆత్మకు అనాత్మ వస్తువులతో ఎట్టి పొత్తునూ కుదరదు. ఆత్మకు చావు పుట్టుకలు కానీ, ఆకలి దప్పులు కానీ, శోక మోహములు కానీ లేవు. ఆకలి దప్పులు ప్రాణసంబంధము. (చావు పుట్టుకలు – అవి దేహధర్మాలు. రెండవ జత, ఆకలి దప్పులు – ప్రాణ ధర్మాలు. మూడవ జంట, శోక మోహాలు – మనస్సు ధర్మాలు. ఇవి “షడూర్ములు”) కాన, బావా! నీవు వీటికి ఏ విధమైన స్థానము నీయక, కేవలము ‘ఆత్మస్వరూపు’డవని తలంచి భ్రాంతులు వీడి అసంగుడవు కమ్ము. దీని కంటే రమణీయత్వము వేరొకటి లేదు. బావా! సంసారములో నీవు తామరాకువలె మెలగవలెను. సంసారమును మలినము హృదయమునకు చేర్చుకొనవద్దు. నీవు సంసారమందున్ననూ, సంసారమును నీవు చేర్చుకొనక మెలగవలయును. అదే అసంగుని లక్షణము. తామరాకువలె నీటిని జేర్చకుండుట తెలిసికొనవలెను. కానీ బ్లాటింగ్ పేపరువలె చిక్కినవన్నింటిని సోకిన కోడిగీతలు, కొంగగీతలన్నింటినీ ప్రింటువలె చేర్చుకొనవద్దు. ‘చిత్తవృత్తు’లనే జలధారలతో ఆత్మలింగాభిషేకము చేయవలెను.”
In plain words
It is not at all fitting to call ‘yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭa’ the fool who has given up puruṣārtha entirely and, turned idler, lies about like an inert thing. Contentment is the jñāni's own property alone; it is not something that falls to others. The ajñāni, discontented, down in the pit of unrest, keeps laying desires upon desires and plans upon plans. Not stopping there, he frets, suffers an anguish no one should have to suffer, and makes his heart boil.
“Brother-in-law! The influences of the pairs of opposites, pleasure and pain, victory and defeat, gain and loss, wield no authority whatever over jñānis. Such a one is also called ‘dvandvātīta’. He regards ‘jealousies’ as contemptible and does not let them come near him. And the svarūpa and svabhāva of the Ātma? It is ‘asaṅga’. The Ātma can have no fellowship at all with anātma things. The Ātma knows neither death and birth, nor hunger and thirst, nor grief and moha. Hunger and thirst belong to the prāṇa. (Death and birth: these are properties of the body. The second pair, hunger and thirst: properties of the prāṇa. The third pair, grief and moha: properties of the Manas. These are the “ṣaḍ-ūrmis”.) So, brother-in-law, give these no place of any kind; think of yourself solely as ‘Ātma-svarūpa’, cast off delusions, and become asaṅga. There is no loveliness beyond this. Brother-in-law! In saṃsāra you must move like a lotus leaf. Do not take saṃsāra's dirt into your heart. Though you are in saṃsāra, you must move without taking saṃsāra into yourself. That is the mark of one who is asaṅga. You must learn, like the lotus leaf, not to take in water. But do not be like blotting paper, soaking up everything that comes its way and taking in every hen-scratch and crane-scrawl that touches it as if it were print. With the streams of water that are the ‘citta-vṛttis’ you must perform the abhiṣeka of the Ātma-liṅga.”