Sanskrit
स्वे स्वे कर्मण्यभिरतः संसिद्धिं लभते नरः । स्वकर्मनिरतः सिद्धिं यथा विन्दति तच्छृणु ॥ ४५ ॥
sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṃsiddhiṃ labhate naraḥ svakarma-nirataḥ siddhiṃ yathā vindati tac chṛṇu
Translation
Man reacheth perfection by each being intent on his own duty. Listen thou how perfection is won by him who is intent on his own duty.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Having laid out the four duties, Krishna states the payoff plainly: perfection comes not from choosing the “best” duty among them but from being wholly absorbed (abhirata) in whichever one happens to be one’s own. This is karma yoga’s practical core restated one last time before the chapter’s climax — the value of an action was never in its content but in the quality of engagement brought to it. “Devoted to his own work, a person reaches perfection.” Not a special work — one’s own. BG 18.46 gives the mechanism: doing it as worship of the source of all beings.
Study deeper
Word by word
- sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥस्वे स्वे कर्मण्य् अभिरतः
- devoted to his own work (sve + sve + karmaṇi + abhirataḥ)
- saṃsiddhiṃ labhate naraḥसंसिद्धिं लभते नरः
- a person attains perfection (saṃsiddhim + labhate + naraḥ)
- svakarma-nirataḥ siddhiṃ yathāस्वकर्म-निरतः सिद्धिं यथा
- absorbed in his own work — how (sva-karma-nirataḥ + siddhim + yathā)
- vindati tac chṛṇuविन्दति तच् छृणु
- he finds perfection, hear that (vindati + tat + śṛṇu)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verse names one’s own duty twice in two lines, sve sve karmani and svakarma-niratah, which reads almost like redundancy until you notice what it’s describing: absorption, being steeped in a thing to the point of repetition. A verse about the value of staying with one thing rather than restlessly seeking a better one is, in its own construction, staying with the same phrase rather than reaching for a different way to say it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- If a practice feels repetitive to the point of boredom, that repetition may be exactly what's doing the work, not evidence you should switch to something newer. Absorption looks like staying, not like variety.
Professional
- A team that keeps returning to the same core process rather than chasing the next new methodology may be doing the deeper work of genuine mastery — don't mistake repetition for stagnation before checking whether it's actually producing depth.
Family & Social
- The same small ritual repeated with someone you love, a nightly check-in, a Sunday call, isn't failing to be special because it's not new each time; the repetition is exactly what makes it load-bearing.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.