In plain words
Unpleasant, pleasant, and mixed—these three kinds of fruit of action arise after death for those who do not renounce; never so for sannyāsins.
Word for word
Unwanted, wanted and mixed, the threefold fruit of action comes after death to those who do not renounce, but never to saṃnyāsins.
अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम्भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु सन्न्यासिनां क्वचित्
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
किं पुनः तत् प्रयोजनम् , यत् सर्वकर्मसंन्यासात् स्यादिति, उच्यते —
अनिष्टं नरकतिर्यगादिलक्षणम् , इष्टं देवादिलक्षणम् , मिश्रम् इष्टानिष्टसंयुक्तं मनुष्यलक्षणं च, तत्र त्रिविधं त्रिप्रकारं कर्मणः धर्माधर्मलक्षणस्य फलं बाह्यानेककारकव्यापारनिष्पन्नं सत् अविद्याकृतम् इन्द्रजालमायोपमं महामोहकरं प्रत्यगात्मोपसर्पि इव — फल्गुतया लयम् अदर्शनं गच्छतीति फलनिर्वचनम् — तत् एतत् एवंलक्षणं फलं भवति अत्यागिनाम् अज्ञानां कर्मिणां अपरमार्थसंन्यासिनां प्रेत्य शरीरपातात् ऊर्ध्वम् । न तु संन्यासिनां परमार्थसंन्यासिनां परमहंसपरिव्राजकानां केवलज्ञाननिष्ठानां क्वचित् । न हि केवलसम्यग्दर्शननिष्ठा अविद्यादिसंसारबीजं न उन्मूलयति कदाचित् इत्यर्थः ॥ १२ ॥
In plain words
And what is that purpose, the one that comes of renouncing all action? The answer is given:
'Undesired' means birth in hell or as an animal; 'desired' means birth as a god; 'mixed' means human birth, a blend of both. This threefold fruit of righteous and unrighteous action comes about through the working of countless outer causes — it is a product of ignorance, comparable to a magician's illusion, deeply deluding, seeming to press right in on the very Self, as it were. (In fact the word 'phala', fruit, comes from just this insubstantiality — it 'goes to dissolution', vanishes; that is its etymology.) This is the fruit, exactly of this kind, that comes to those who have not relinquished — the unenlightened, ordinary agents, those who are not renunciates in the truest sense — after death, once the body has fallen. But never, under any circumstances, to renunciates: true renunciates in the ultimate sense, supreme wandering ascetics, those who abide in knowledge alone. Because steadfastness in right vision, and right vision only, never once fails to uproot the very seed of the whole cycle of rebirth, beginning with ignorance itself — that is exactly what is meant.
Close to the Sanskrit
But what, again, is that purpose which would come about from the renunciation of all action? — thus. It is said —
Undesired — characterized by hell, animal birth, and so on; desired — characterized by birth as a god and so on; mixed — joined with both the desired and undesired, characterized by birth as a human being. There, the threefold fruit of action characterized by merit and demerit — accomplished through the operation of numerous external factors, being produced by ignorance, comparable to a magician's illusion, productive of great delusion, seeming to approach the inner Self, as it were (by virtue of its insubstantiality it goes to dissolution, to non-appearance — thus is the etymology of 'fruit') — that, this, characterized in this way, such fruit occurs for those who have not relinquished, the ignorant, agents, those who are not renunciates in the ultimate sense, after death, from the falling of the body, onward. Not, however, for renunciates — renunciates in the ultimate sense, supreme wandering ascetics, those established solely in knowledge — anywhere at all. For indeed, steadfastness in right vision alone never fails, at any time, to uproot the seed of transmigration beginning with ignorance — this is the meaning.