Sanskrit
चेतसा सर्वकर्माणि मयि संन्यस्य मत्परः । बुद्धियोगमुपाश्रित्य मच्चित्तः सततं भव ॥ ५७ ॥
cetasā sarva-karmāṇi mayi sannyasya mat-paraḥ buddhi-yogam upāśritya mac-cittaḥ satataṃ bhava
Translation
Renouncing mentally all works in Me, intent on Me, resorting to the yoga of discrimination, have thy thought ever on Me.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A direct imperative sequence opens here — mentally renounce all works into Krishna, treat him as the highest aim, resort to buddhi-yoga (the yoga of discriminating reason, named back in chapter 2), and keep the mind constantly fixed on him. The four verses that follow, 57 through 60, function as Krishna’s final, most personal appeal, shifting from a description of the ideal devotee to direct address of Arjuna specifically. BG 3.30 and BG 12.6 returning: cetasā sarva-karmāṇi mayi sannyasya — mentally surrender all action to Krishna, take refuge in buddhi-yoga, and keep the mind on Me.
Study deeper
Word by word
- cetasā sarva-karmāṇiचेतसा सर्व-कर्माणि
- renouncing all actions in Me with the mind (cetasā + sarva-karmāṇi)
- mayi sannyasya mat-paraḥमयि संन्यस्य मत्-परः
- surrendering, intent on Me (mayi + sannyasya + mat-paraḥ)
- buddhi-yogam upāśrityaबुद्धि-योगं उपाश्रित्य
- taking refuge in the yoga of understanding (buddhi-yogam + upāśritya)
- mac-cittaḥ satataṃ bhavaमच्-चित्तः सततं भव
- be ever fixed on Me (mat-cittaḥ + satatam + bhava)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice what’s absent here: no new argument, no fresh justification, just four practices — mental renunciation, orientation, buddhi-yoga, sustained fixation — stacked back to back in a single breath. Eighteen chapters of reasoning have already been spent; this line reads like someone who has finished making the case and is now simply telling you what to do with it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Once you've actually convinced yourself of something important, stop re-arguing it and start listing the specific practices that make it real day to day — reasoning has a stopping point, and past it, only execution is left.
Professional
- Once a strategic case has genuinely landed with your team, resist re-justifying it in every meeting — shift the conversation to the concrete practices that operationalize it, the way this verse moves straight to instruction.
Family & Social
- Once you and someone close to you have actually agreed on what needs to change, stop revisiting the reasoning and start naming the specific daily habits that carry it out — repeating the argument after agreement is reached just delays the practice.
Ask yourself
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