Of action that is well-done, that is sāttvika, the wise say the fruit is sāttvika, stainless. But the fruit of rajas, of rājasa action, is pain; since action is in hand, the fruit too is pain, being, by the likeness to its cause, just rājasa. And the fruit of tamas is ignorance, the fruit of tāmasa action, of unrighteousness, as before. And what comes from the qualities?

Thus, the fruit of good action, performed with no eye to its fruit, in the form of the worship of Me, by one born, having reached death when sattva is grown, in the family of the knowers of the self, is again stainless, free of any trace of pain, born of a still greater sattva; so say those who know the ripening of the quality of sattva. But the fruit of rajas grown strong at the time of the end is birth in a family attached to action that is the means to fruit, a fruit of the form of the transmigratory, mostly pain, the succession of the beginning of action preceded by an aim to fruit, the experience of that fruit, rebirth, the growth of rajas, and again the beginning of action preceded by an aim to fruit; so say those who know the truth of that quality. And the fruit of tamas is ignorance; the fruit of tamas grown strong at the time of the end is of the form of a succession of ignorance. What is the stainless fruit and the rest, born of the greater sattva and so on? To this the Lord speaks.

When it is said that the fruit of rajas is pain, the meaning is that it is a slight happiness mixed with pain. So the Sharkaraksha branch says, 'from rajas there arises, in a measure, both happiness and pain; therefore they call those people happy and unhappy'. Otherwise, since pure pain is exceedingly grievous, tamas would not be more painful than rajas.