Sanskrit
मयि सर्वाणि कर्माणि संन्यस्याध्यात्मचेतसा । निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः ॥
mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇi saṃnyasyādhyātmacetasā nirāśīr nirmamo bhūtvā yudhyasva vigatajvaraḥ
Translation
Surrendering all actions to Me, with thy thoughts resting on the supreme Self, from hope and egoism freed, and of mental fever cured, engage in battle.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The chapter’s abstract argument lands on Arjuna directly: surrender all actions to Krishna and fight. This is a different kind of renunciation than the sannyasa verse 4 rejected — not abstaining from the act, but surrendering the sense of ownership over it (“mine-less”), consistent with everything argued since verse 9. It’s also the first explicit instruction to surrender action to Krishna personally, a devotional register that becomes central much later, in chapters 9, 12, and 18. Vigata-jvaraḥ — “with your fever gone” — names the felt result: the agitation of ownership, computed outcomes, and self-reproach lifts once the action is handed over. The same instruction, expanded, closes the whole Gita at BG 18.66.
Study deeper
Word by word
- mayi sarvāṇi karmāṇiमयि सर्वाणि कर्माणि
- in me, all actions (mayi + sarvāṇi + karmāṇi)
- saṃnyasyādhyātmacetasāसंन्यस्याध्यात्मचेतसा
- renouncing, with mind fixed on the Self (saṃnyasya + adhyātma-cetasā)
- nirāśīr nirmamo bhūtvāनिराशीः निर्ममो भूत्वा
- becoming free of longing and of 'mine' (nir-āśīḥ + nir-mamaḥ + bhūtvā)
- yudhyasva vigatajvaraḥयुध्यस्व विगतज्वरः
- fight, your fever gone (yudhyasva + vigata-jvaraḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Grammatically this is one sentence, not two: surrender and fight arrive in the same breath rather than as sequential steps — first purify your intention, then act. The verse doesn’t ask Arjuna to achieve inner surrender before he’s permitted to raise his bow; surrendering and fighting are given as a single simultaneous act, not a prerequisite followed by a permission.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Site Commentary — Second Reading
Jvara — “fever” — is a clinical word, and Krishna’s choice of it names the ordinary self-interested mode of acting as a diagnosable condition, not a moral failing: a raised temperature, not a character flaw. Anyone who has done the same task twice — once from anxious urgency and once from settled resolve — knows the difference isn’t in the output but in exactly this, a fever present in one case and absent in the other, changing how the effort feels without necessarily changing what gets done. The verse isn’t asking Arjuna to want less; it’s diagnosing the specific heat that usually comes bundled with wanting, and asking him to fight without it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- You don't need to fully resolve your inner conflict before you act — this verse pairs surrendering the outcome and doing the thing in the same breath, not as two separate stages where the first has to finish before the second starts.
Professional
- Don't wait until you feel fully settled about a decision's uncertainty before executing it — commit to the outcome not being fully in your control and start the work in the same move, rather than treating peace of mind as a precondition for action.
Family & Social
- You can begin repairing a strained relationship before you've fully let go of resentment about how it got strained — acting and releasing don't have to happen in that order; they can happen together.
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