AVG 13.4

Chapter 13 (The Seekers Sense of Well-Being): Verse 4
कर्मनैष्कर्म्यनिर्बन्धभावा देहस्थयोगिनः ।
संयोगायोगविरहादहमासे यथासुखम् ॥ १३-४॥

PURPORT:
Those seekers who are attached to the
body insist upon attributing anything
related to action or inaction to their
own bodies. I live in happiness owing to
my awareness in not associating the body
with actions performed and my understanding
that allows me to (also) not dissociate the
body from actions performed by me.

TRANSLITERATION:
कर्मनैष्कर्म्यनिर्बन्धभावाः देहस्थयोगिनः ।
karmanaiṣkarmyanirbandhabhāvāḥ dehasthayoginaḥ ।
संयोगायोगविरहात् अहम् आसे यथासुखम् ॥ १३-४॥
saṃyogāyogavirahāt aham āse yathāsukham ॥ 13-4॥

MEANING:
karmanaiṣkarmyanirbandhabhāvāḥ (कर्मनैष्कर्म्यनिर्बन्धभावाः) = states of attributing anything to action or inaction (compound of karma (कर्म) meaning 'action' and naiṣkarmya (नैष्कर्म्य) meaning 'inaction' and nirbandha (निर्बन्ध) meaning 'insisting upon/attributing anything to' and bhāvāḥ (भावाः) meaning 'state of being')
dehasthayoginaḥ (देहस्थयोगिनः) = the yogis (spiritual seeker) who are attached to the body (compound of dehastha (देहस्थ) meaning 'attached to the body/standing within the body' and yoginaḥ (देहस्थ) meaning 'of the yogi/of the spiritual seeker')।
saṃyogāyogavirahāt (संयोगायोगविरहात्) = attributable to the absence of association and dissociation (compound of saṃyogāyoga (संयोगायोग meaning 'association and dissociation' and virahāt (संयोगायोगविरहात् meaning 'attributable to the abandoning of/owing to the absence of')
aham (अहम्) = I 
āse (आसे) = live  
yathāsukham (यथासुखम्) = thus happily ॥ 13-4॥

COMMENT:
Janaka's message here is similar to the message that we saw in verse 12.6 when Janaka mentions that doing / 'engaging in action' and non-doing / 'willful non-engagement' are both ways by which the ego actively manages to control the outcomes of ones activities. Janaka is only building upon the wisdom developed in 12.6 when he mentions that one needs to transcend both karma* (the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect)) and naishkarma (not undertaking activities that will produce good or bad effects). In effect, the transcending of these two dualities is really the achievement of a state where the ego is truly eclipsed.

Now one should not assume that transcendence of the ego and other like concepts is the reaching of a plane where one can 'look-down' on planes lower where the ego was center-stage. Instead, the analogy is similar to the way one transcends ones formative years - one can never rise above and reach a new plane, instead one only develops and grows oneself internally - emotionally, physically and spiritually - to transcend ones formative years. Another example might better clarify what Janaka means by the transcendence of the ego -  if one is prone to sudden fits of uncontrolled rage then it can be thought there are two ways to potentially get to a place where one is not so governed by the vagaries of such emotional states - the first will be to completely withdraw from all aspects of society and interaction that can have the potential to produce such patterns of emotions or the second approach will be to clarify to oneself the root cause of such emotions and work to manage the same through a process of self-control and better situational awareness that one brings to bear upon any sequence of events that produces such an emotional change. It is clearly understood that while the former is a means of escape without awareness of the issue, the latter is a means of transcending the emotional state and understanding oneself better to manage better. Janaka is in a happy state of stillness where he does not  associate the body any more with actions performed (by his body/mind complex nevertheless) and, at the same time, the same stillness also allows for him to not dissociate the body/mind complex from actions (that regardless will need to be performed).

*The idea of karma is simply that actions of human beings have consequences. The related claim that every human action is itself a consequence of actions from some purported past life is a notion that needs to be disabused from the mind of the seeking individual. Therefore, the idea of karma does not implicate a fatalistic perspective on life (a perspective that one’s past deeds foreordain all of one’s actions and it is all thus 'fated'). The significance of karma is simply that the seekers mind/life will be better so long as the seeker acts in ways that are compassionate and humane; and correspondingly, and the quality of one's mind and life significantly poorer if one interacts in manners considered unscrupulous and malevolent.