स्वे स्वे कर्मण्यभिरतः संसिद्धिं लभते नरः।स्वकर्मनिरतः सिद्धिं यथा विन्दति तच्छृणु॥
sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ sansiddhiṃ labhate naraḥsva-karma-nirataḥ siddhiṃ yathā vindati tac chṛṇu
Word by word
The verse says
A person reaches fulfilment by taking delight in the work that is his own. Hear how someone absorbed in his own work finds that fulfilment.
In plain words
Now the turn, and the word is worth holding on to.
Abhirata - taking delight in, absorbed in. Not enduring it. Not accepting it. Absorbed.
And what is promised is saṁsiddhi, complete fulfilment. The claim is that the ordinary work in front of you can take you the whole way.
Where you've felt this · in creative work
Iqbal has repaired stringed instruments since he was nineteen. He is not famous and the shop is small. Ask him about a crack in a soundboard and forty minutes go by. He is not telling you about the meaning of his life. He is telling you about the crack, and he has clearly never once been bored.
Going deeper
The claim that ordinary work can carry you the whole way is the real content of this passage, and it is much larger than the four groups.
The promise is not that your work will be tolerable or that it will pay. It is that absorption in work that genuinely suits you is a complete path, not a lesser substitute for a spiritual life you did not get round to.
That was a radical thing to say in a setting where the serious religious options involved leaving. It is still radical now, when the implied message is usually that your real life begins after work.
The condition is in the word absorbed. Not every job can be done this way and this is not a verse telling you to be content. It is telling you what becomes possible when what you do is genuinely yours, which is also a reason to take seriously the question of whether it is.