Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 12

अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम् । भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित्

aniṣṭamiṣṭaṃ miśraṃ ca trividhaṃ karmaṇaḥ phalam | bhavatyatyāgināṃ pretya na tu saṃnyāsināṃ kvacit

Translation

The threefold fruit of action — evil, good, and mixed — accrues after death to non-abandoners, but never to abandoners.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

aniṣṭam

unwished

iṣṭam

wished

miśram

mixed

ca

and

trividham

threefold

karmaṇaḥ

of action

phalam

the fruit

bhavati

is

atyāginām

of non-abandoners

pretya

having departed (hereafter)

na

not

tu

indeed

sannyāsinām

for the renouncers

kvacit

ever

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Fruit: a doing of avidyā; like the glamour cast by a juggler's art; very delusive. Action (karma): Dharma and Adharma. Evil: such as hell (naraka), the animal kingdom. Good: such as the Devas. Mixed: humanity. These three sorts of fruits accrue after death to non-abandoners — to the unenlightened, to the followers of Karma-yoga, to the abandoners (saṃnyāsins) not strictly so called — but never to the real saṃnyāsins, engaged exclusively in the path of knowledge (jñāna-niṣṭha) and belonging to the highest order of saṃnyāsins, the Paramahaṃsa-Parivrājakas. Exclusive devotion to Right Knowledge cannot but destroy avidyā and other seeds of saṃsāra.