2.47
Translationकर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन
Your business is with action alone; not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive to action. Let not your attachment be fixed on inaction.
The Bhagavad Gita
भगवद्गीता
Vyasa (attributed) · c. 2nd century BCE
On the eve of battle, a warrior freezes and a god becomes his charioteer.
A dialogue on duty, action, and the self that shaped a civilization.
What it is really about
Arjuna stands between two armies filled with his own relatives and teachers, and cannot bring himself to fight. Krishna's answer, seven hundred verses long, is a philosophy of action: do your duty fully, and let go of the outcome.
Where it came from
The Gita is a section of the Mahabharata, the vast Sanskrit epic. It has been commented on by every major school of Indian philosophy and became a touchstone for Gandhi, who called it his spiritual dictionary.
The concepts to carry with you
Dharma
Duty, order, and the right way for one's role.
Karma yoga
The discipline of acting without attachment to results.
Atman
The unchanging self beneath every change.
- Dharma and karma yoga: act without attachment to the fruit
- Why it moved figures from Gandhi to Oppenheimer
Read it in the original
Each passage is cited and credited. Classical lines open character by character: the reading, the sense, and what is hiding inside a single character. Paraphrases are marked where the best translations are still under copyright.
01 02 2.48
TranslationPerform actions, casting off attachment, and being equable in success or failure. This equability is called yoga.
03 3.35
TranslationOne's own duty, though defective, is better than another's duty well performed. Death in one's own duty is preferable; another's duty is fraught with danger.
04 6.5
TranslationOne should raise the self by the self, and not let the self sink; for the self is the friend of the self, and the self too is its own enemy.
05 2.22
TranslationAs a man casting off old clothes puts on others and new ones, so the embodied self casting off old bodies goes to others and new ones.
A modern translation
Why it still matters
Do the work; release the result. It is the most effective cure for performance anxiety ever devised.
Map it onto your own decision