Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 4: Knowledge and the Renouncing of Action

Bhagavad Gita 4.19

yasya sarve samārambhāḥ kāmasaṅkalpavarjitāḥ | jñānāgnidagdhakarmāṇaṃ tamāhuḥ paṇḍitaṃ budhāḥ ||

One whose every undertaking is free from desire and selfish intent, and whose actions have been burned up in the fire of knowledge, is called wise by those who know.

Modern context

A wise person, by this definition, still undertakes things, and plenty of them. What is absent is the private scheming behind the work, the thought 'I must get this out of it'. Sankalpa here is the mind's habit of spinning plans around what it wants. When work is done with understanding and without that scheming, it leaves nothing behind to bind the doer, like a seed that has been roasted and cannot sprout.