Upanishads · Jābāladarśana 1.23
॥
Devanāgarī
ज्ञानामृतेन तृप्तस्य कृतकृत्यस्य योगिनः । न चास्ति किंचित्कर्तव्यमस्ति चेन्न स तत्त्ववित्
Transliteration (IAST)
jñānāmṛtena tṛptasya kṛtakṛtyasya yoginaḥ | na cāsti kiṃcitkartavyamasti cenna sa tattvavit
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ज्ञान-अमृतेन तृप्तस्यjñāna-amṛtena tṛptasyafor one satisfied with the nectar of knowledge
कृत-कृत्यस्य योगिनःkṛta-kṛtyasya yoginaḥfor the yogi who has accomplished what was to be accomplished
न च अस्ति किंचित् कर्तव्यम्na ca asti kiṃcit kartavyamthere is nothing whatever that must be done
अस्ति चेत् न सः तत्त्व-वित्asti cet na saḥ tattva-vitand if there is, he does not know the truth
Translation
"For one satisfied with the nectar of knowledge, for the yogi who has accomplished what was to be accomplished, there is nothing whatever that must be done; and if there is something, he does not know the truth."
Version
b7a7dce79b2c · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here a position is stated that the Vaishnava side accepts halfway, and no further; and it is worth explaining precisely where it stops. It is said: for one who has attained, there is no kartavya, nothing subject to performance. This position is itself found in the Gita too, in almost the same words: "for one who delights in the self, is satisfied by the self, and content with it alone, there is no task that must be performed" (3.17).
The agreement, then, is complete. But the Gita sets beside this another statement, and here the paths part. A verse later it says: "and yet I, for whom there is nothing unattained in all three worlds and nothing to be acquired, — still remain engaged in action" (3.22). And it explains: were He not to act, people would follow His example, and the worlds would perish (3.23–24).
Here lies the difference, and it is not one of abstraction, but of what the one who has attained actually does. By this verse, one who has attained has nothing to do, because there is nothing to do it for: desires are absent. By the Gita, one who has attained has nothing to do for himself — and precisely for this reason he is free to act for others; and the highest action begins exactly where the need for it ends.
The Bhagavatam expresses this in a description worth quoting. Of those already liberated — the atmarama, "those who delight in themselves" — it is said that even they "render causeless devotion" to urukrama, the wide-strider (1.7.10). That is, even where every necessity has fallen away, service remains; and since it remains without necessity, it was never a consequence of necessity in the first place.