Sanskrit
त्याज्यं दोषवदित्येके कर्म प्राहुर्मनीषिणः । यज्ञदानतपः कर्म न त्याज्यमिति चापरे ॥ ३ ॥
tyājyaṃ doṣavad ity eke karma prāhur manīṣiṇaḥ yajñadānatapaḥ karma na tyājyam iti cāpare
Translation
"Action should be relinquished as an evil," declare some thoughtful men; "acts of sacrifice, gift and austerity should not be relinquished," say others.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna surfaces the live philosophical dispute of his day without picking a side yet: one school treats all action as inherently tainted and worth abandoning, another exempts ritual obligations — sacrifice, gift, austerity — as too purifying to give up. Laying out both positions before adjudicating is a rhetorical habit this text repeats (compare the sannyasa-versus-karma- yoga debate reopened in 5.1-2); Krishna lets Arjuna hear the disagreement before supplying the resolution in verse 5. Two schools, both wrong for Arjuna: one that all action is tainted and to be dropped, one that sacrifice, gift, and austerity must be kept. BG 18.4–BG 18.6 give the middle: keep the acts, drop the attachment.
Study deeper
Word by word
- tyājyaṃ doṣavad ity ekeत्याज्यं दोषवद् इत्य् एके
- 'action should be given up as an evil,' say some thinkers (tyājyam + doṣa-vat + iti + eke)
- karma prāhur manīṣiṇaḥकर्म प्राहुः मनीषिणः
- say the wise, of action (karma + prāhuḥ + manīṣiṇaḥ)
- yajñadānatapaḥ karmaयज्ञदानतपः कर्म
- acts of sacrifice, gift, and austerity (yajña-dāna-tapaḥ + karma)
- na tyājyam iti cāpareन त्याज्यं इति चापरे
- 'should not be given up,' say others (na + tyājyam + iti + ca + apare)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice that both positions Krishna cites here are extremes — abandon all action, or abandon none of the ritual kind — and extremes staged like this are rarely where a teacher intends to land. They’re usually there to make the actual answer, arriving two verses later, feel like a discovered middle rather than an imposed compromise.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you catch yourself facing only two options that both feel extreme — quit everything or change nothing — resist picking one before asking whether a third position, built around a different distinction entirely, actually resolves what's bothering you.
Professional
- When a team debate hardens into two opposing camps — ship everything now versus freeze the roadmap — don't referee between them; look for the distinction, like attachment to outcome versus the action itself, that the argument is actually missing.
Family & Social
- When a family disagreement splits into 'do it my way entirely' or 'drop it entirely,' pause before choosing a side — the workable answer is often a third position neither camp has named yet.
Ask yourself
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