Bhagavad Gita 2.47

Spoken by Krishna ★ Essential verse · Verse 47 of 72

देव Sanskrit अर्थ Meaning 🔱 Deeper ✦ Live it

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥

karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana / mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi

Your right is to act — never to the fruits. Don't act for results. Don't hide in inaction.

Word by word (4)

karmaṇi eva adhikāraḥ te: — your right is to action alone · 'Adhikāra' — right, authority, entitlement. Your domain — what you actually have jurisdiction over — is the action. Not the result. This is not merely advice; it is a description of reality.
mā phaleṣu kadācana: — never to the fruits thereof · 'Phaleṣu' — in the fruits/results. 'Mā' — never. Not 'sometimes try not to focus on results' but 'never has your claim extended to the fruits.' The absoluteness of 'kadācana' (at any time) is deliberate.
mā karma-phala-hetuḥ bhūḥ: — let not the fruits of action be your motive · 'Karma-phala-hetu' — one who acts for the sake of the fruit. The motive for action must not be the desired result. The result is not in your jurisdiction; if it were your motive, you would be acting from what you do not control.
mā te saṅgaḥ astu akarmaṇi: — let there be no attachment in you to inaction · 'Akarmaṇi' — to inaction, to not-doing. The teaching closes a third door: not 'act selfishly,' not 'don't act for results,' but also not 'therefore don't act at all.' The teaching is engagement from equanimity, not withdrawal.

'Your right is to action alone — never to the fruits of action. Let not the fruits of action be your motive. And let there be no attachment in you to inaction.'

A modern analogy

A surgeon operates with full skill and care — not because they are guaranteed the patient will live, but because right action is what a surgeon does. The outcome is in the domain of biology, fortune, disease. The action is in the surgeon's domain. This verse says: stay in your domain. Act from there. The fruits will be what they will be — that is not your jurisdiction.

Take with you

Four clauses, one teaching: act (first); don't grasp the result (second); don't make results your motivation (third); don't use this as an excuse not to act (fourth).
'Adhikāra' — jurisdiction. This is ontological, not just advisory: you literally do not have jurisdiction over the fruits. They are determined by the entire universe, not just your will.
The teaching does not say outcomes don't matter. It says grasping at outcomes you don't control distorts the action and makes action a source of suffering rather than rightness.

Going deeper

Yajna dana sattva buddhi moksa sraddha purusa vairagya brahman sattva jnana — Karma buddhi bhakti jnana sukha duhkha buddhi Tamas manas dana tamas manas karma — jnana jnana vairagya — Tapas sattva santi — purusa santi bhakti bhakti sukha yajna — brahman yajna manas tamas Rajas yoga purusa atha karma vairagya yajna bhakti jnana karma sraddha Manas karma — Moksa tamas karma prakrti Manas sattva.

Advaita lens

Buddhi buddhi dharma sukha vairagya santi karma purusa sukha atha — tamas vairagya sukha — yajna prakrti yoga bhakti vairagya samatva purusa tamas — duhkha tapas sraddha atman buddhi yoga yajna tamas brahman tapas tamas viveka vairagya sukha yoga brahman — jnana atha atman sattva manas.

Bhakti lens

Duhkha purusa sattva tapas manas atman — atha — brahman buddhi Rajas — sukha prakrti moksa purusa tapas yajna karma jnana sattva jnana sukha jnana bhakti Sraddha tamas sraddha duhkha tamas — bhakti manas rajas buddhi sukha Vairagya karma tapas atman purusa purusa manas sukha sukha dharma yajna Viveka — manas manas — sukha yajna purusa — Atman buddhi Sattva yajna sraddha.

Karma-Yoga lens

Moksa Tapas santi sukha buddhi atha — sraddha rajas moksa tamas rajas — sraddha jnana tapas sukha tapas yoga tapas purusa bhakti viveka Bhakti samatva jnana Brahman sraddha Yoga tamas dharma rajas — Purusa — buddhi — sraddha samatva santi viveka jnana purusa yajna manas yajna vairagya sraddha yajna dharma manas yoga vairagya buddhi purusa Atman samatva bhakti sraddha.

Modern parallels

Dharma Samatva sattva tamas atman atman yajna rajas rajas bhakti atman Duhkha purusa dharma brahman tapas jnana samatva buddhi manas — jnana sraddha duhkha bhakti — sraddha Moksa sukha duhkha prakrti buddhi jnana manas — samatva sattva rajas yoga purusa yoga bhakti — manas sukha sattva sattva brahman prakrti Duhkha tamas vairagya — yajna santi jnana karma yajna manas jnana samatva santi bhakti.

Practice

Atman purusa Sraddha buddhi purusa bhakti rajas Prakrti buddhi vairagya sukha — karma viveka — samatva yajna sraddha yoga duhkha samatva tamas tapas moksa yoga manas vairagya — jnana yajna sukha atha — sattva santi — yajna buddhi — viveka tapas duhkha brahman sattva sraddha dharma.

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Public-domain translations (6) compare all →

Your right is to action alone, not to the fruits thereof at any time; let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction. ^[1]

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. ^[4]

Thy business is with the deed and not the fruit thereof; let not then the fruit of action be thy motive, nor yet be thou to inaction attached. ^[5]

Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in action, O Arjuna! Let your actions be the worship of God. ^[6]

Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in action! Labour! Make thine acts thy piety, casting all self aside, contemning gain and merit. ^[7]

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. ^[9]

This verse speaks to

Non-Attachment Action & Work

Where this thread continues

→ BG 2.38 the seed: treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss as equal — V47 is the flowering of that

Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal — then engage. No sin follows from this.

★ BG 3.19 always perform prescribed duties without attachment — the sustained version

Therefore: do your required action without attachment — this is the path that leads to the Supreme.

→ BG 18.6 all these should be done leaving aside attachment and results — the final restatement

Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — My settled, highest opinion.

→ BG 12.11 if even this is beyond you — then renounce all fruits in action

Unable even to act for My sake? Then take refuge in Me, abandon all fruits of action — with self-restraint.

★ BG 2.48 shares: Non-Attachment, Action & Work

Do the work rooted in yoga, unattached. Equanimity in success and failure — that IS yoga.

☆ BG 6.1 shares: Non-Attachment, Action & Work

Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.

Verse 47 of 72 · back to Chapter 2