श्रेयो हि ज्ञानमभ्यासाज्ज्ञानाद्ध्यानं विशिष्यते।ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम्॥
śreyo hi jñānam abhyāsāj jñānād dhyānaṃ viśiṣyatedhyānāt karma-phala-tyāgas tyāgāc chāntir anantaram
Word by word
The verse says
Knowledge is better than practice done by rote. Meditation is better than knowledge. Giving up the fruit of action is better than meditation — and peace follows that giving up at once.
In plain words
A ranking, and it runs the opposite way to the ladder just given.
The last rung turns out to be the top of this list.
Tyāgāc chāntir anantaram — from the letting go, peace, immediately. The only thing in this chapter that happens without delay.
Where you've felt this · in study
Your friend spends three years deciding whether to sell the flat she inherited and cannot afford to keep. The deciding costs her more than either answer would have. The week she signs, she sleeps properly for the first time since it started.
Going deeper
Two orderings sit side by side here and they point in opposite directions, which is not a mistake.
The ladder of verses 8 to 11 came down: hold your mind there, or practise, or work for me, or at least let go of results. This verse goes up and arrives at the same place from below, with letting go at the top. The accommodation was never a compromise. The last resort was the destination.
The word to notice is anantaram — immediately, with nothing in between. Peace is not described as a reward that follows later.
That is checkable, which is rare for a claim this large. Think of something you were carrying and then genuinely put down. The relief did not arrive the following month. It arrived in the same hour, which is what the verse is describing.