Bhagwad Gita - Post 55

Verse 19

Yasya sarve samaarambhaah

Kaamasankalpa varjitaah;

Jnaanaagni dagdhakarmaanam

Tam aahuh panditam budhaah.

He whose undertakings are all devoid of desires and (selfish) purposes, and whose actions have been burnt by the fire of knowledge — him the wise call a sage.

Basically, actions are desired because of hankering for rewards and these actions are not properly consummated. One who is free from desire and hankering is considered to be intelligent and wise. This is because all actions of such a person turn into inaction by the fire of knowledge that is kindled within the purified mind that is free from all desires and hankerings. 

A pandita sage is one who acts renouncing kama desire which comes from the past and sankalpa expectation of fruit in the future. Past worry and future anxiety drain you of energy and vitality. They interfere with present action. 

The craving to perform action and anxiety for the fruit of action needs to be renounced, not action. Give up kartrtva bhavana and bhoktrtva bhavana – the sense of doer-ship and enjoyer-ship. 

One who continues to act giving up desire and expectation is freed. His actions get burnt by the fire of Knowledge. Action means desire, vasana. Knowledge sublimates all desires. 

The wise call such a person a sage. Ordinary people do not recognize the greatness of the person. You have to be spiritually evolved to spot an Enlightened person. Only a musician can appreciate an outstanding musical performance. As the saying goes – you need a Milton to understand Milton!! Only a Jnani can describe the state of another Jnani!!

Chinmaya writes, 

One who is a perfect Sage, says Krishna, is one who will undertake to act "WITHOUT PLANNING" and "WITHOUT ANY DESIRE FOR FRUITS." In this context, these two qualifications of a perfect act are to be understood with kindness and sympathy. A literal meaning of these two terms should not be used here, as in that case the statement would become absurd.

The instruction to act "WITHOUT PLANNING AND DESIRE" does not mean that a man-of-Equilibrium, in his inspired activity, should not make use of his better intelligence and plan his activities to gain a desired result. It only means that, WHILE HE IS AT WORK, he should not allow his abilities and capacities to run to waste, with his mental preoccupations and sentimental fears regarding the results-of-his-work. 

Vedanta does not in any way ignore man's intellect. The way of life as advised in the Gita provides only a more efficient means to act and achieve, to live and to enjoy, cultivating and applying our own potentialities more intelligently. 

An individual, who has thus come to live intelligently and act diligently, becomes fully wedded to the piece of work in hand and gets so entirely drunk with the joy of his own inspiration, that the action cannot leave upon him even a trace of its reaction. 

Our mind and intellect will venture forth to worry over the unknown possibilities and dangers, unless they can find a more secure hold upon something nobler and diviner. "

A perfect Sage is one whose mind is ever hitched on to the cognition of the Divine, so that, even when he functions in the world outside, he is reveling in his own Consciousness within.

Love.

PS - Posts under the theme Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahankara deal entirely with the process of how ego leads to desires, such desires leads to actions and such actions to Karma and Karmas bind a human being in the cycle of births and deaths.

Also, in the same theme, solution to come out of this vicious cycle is also clearly explained. 

Love.