Verse 18.30

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 18.30:

प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च कार्याकार्ये भयाभये ।
बन्धं मोक्षं च या वेत्ति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी ॥ ३० ॥

pravṛttiṃ ca nivṛttiṃ ca kāryākārye bhayābhaye |
bandhaṃ mokṣaṃ ca yā vetti buddhiḥ sā pārtha sāttvikī || 30 ||

pravṛttim–when to engage; ca–and; nivṛttim–when to disengage; ca–and; kārya-akārye–what is proper and improper action; bhaya-abhaye–what is to be feared and what is not to be feared; bandham–what is bondage; mokṣam–what is liberation; ca–and; yā–which; vetti–understands; buddhiḥ–intelligence; sā–that; pārtha–O son of Pṛthā; sāttvikī–governed by the quality of goodness.

O Pārtha, a person’s intelligence is considered to be in the mode of goodness when he is able to discriminate between proper and improper engagement, between what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, and between what is binding and what is liberating.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

Bhayābhaye refers to the cause of both entanglement in the material world and liberation from it.