Sanskrit
कर्मणो ह्यपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः । अकर्मणश्च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गतिः ॥
karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṃ boddhavyaṃ ca vikarmaṇaḥ akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṃ gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ
Translation
It is needful to discriminate action, to discriminate unlawful action, and to discriminate inaction; mysterious is the path of action.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna names three things that must be understood, not just two: action (karma), wrong or forbidden action (vikarma), and inaction (akarma) — a three-way distinction, not a simple binary — and calls the path of action itself “mysterious.” This complicates any reading of karma yoga as a simple formula; verse 18 supplies the actual resolution to the puzzle just posed. Gahanā gatiḥ — “the course is a thicket” — is Krishna’s own warning that the topic resists slogans. The addition of vikarma (transgressive action) to the pair keeps the analysis honest: not all action is fit to be offered, and telling which is which is part of the discipline.
Study deeper
Word by word
- karmaṇo hy api boddhavyaṃकर्मणो ह्य् अपि बोद्धव्यं
- the nature of action must be known (karmaṇaḥ + hi + api + boddhavyam)
- boddhavyaṃ ca vikarmaṇaḥबोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः
- and of wrong action (boddhavyam + ca + vikarmaṇaḥ)
- akarmaṇaś ca boddhavyaṃअकर्मणश् च बोद्धव्यं
- and of inaction (akarmaṇaḥ + ca + boddhavyam)
- gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥगहना कर्मणो गतिः
- deep is the way of action (gahanā + karmaṇaḥ + gatiḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Adding vikarma turns what looked like a single opposition — action versus inaction — into a three-term field. That means an adequate account of action needs a second, independent axis: not just whether you acted, but whether the acting itself was rightly done. Collapsing those two questions into one is exactly the kind of confusion this verse is warning is possible even for the wise.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When evaluating your own choices, don't collapse everything into 'did I act or not' — ask a second, independent question: was the action itself sound, apart from whether you acted at all.
Professional
- When reviewing a decision or incident, separate 'did the team act in time' from 'was the action taken the right one' — conflating delay with wrong-action, as if they were the same failure, hides where the actual problem was.
Family & Social
- When a conflict happens, separate whether someone acted from whether what they did was right — treating every instance of 'you did something' as automatically wrong erases a real and useful distinction.
Ask yourself
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