The fruit of good action, they say, is sattvic and pure; the fruit of activity is suffering, and the fruit of inertia is ignorance.

Su-kṛtasya karmaṇaḥ — well-performed action — sattvic action without attachment to results — produces sāttvika and nirmala fruit: clarity, happiness, and spiritual progress.

Rajasic action, performed with attachment, produces duḥkha — suffering — because the objects of desire never provide lasting satisfaction, and anxiety accompanies all attachment.

Tamasic “action” (or inaction born of delusion) produces ajñāna — ignorance — further binding the soul in confusion and darkness.