संस्कृत
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karmaphalahetur bhūr mā te saṅgo'stv akarmaṇi
अनुवाद
Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
व्याख्या
The single most famous verse of the Gita, and the formal statement of karma yoga. You have standing over the action itself — the doing — but never over its fruit. The two clauses that follow close the obvious misreadings: don’t treat the fruit as your motive, and don’t use “I can’t control the outcome” as a reason to stop acting altogether. It’s a discipline of engaged, non-attached action, not detachment from action. “Adhikāra” — closer to jurisdiction than “right” — is an administrative word, and it is doing the work: Krishna is drawing the boundary of what Arjuna actually governs. The fourth quarter forecloses the escape hatch of quietism, which is why akarma has to be defined so carefully in chapter 4.
गहराई से अध्ययन करें
शब्द-दर-शब्द
- karmaṇy evādhikāras teकर्मण्य् एवाधिकारस् ते
- your right is to action alone (karmaṇi + eva + adhikāraḥ + te)
- mā phaleṣu kadācanaमा फलेषु कदाचन
- never to the fruits (mā + phaleṣu + kadācana)
- mā karmaphalahetur bhūrमा कर्मफलहेतुः भूः
- do not become the cause of action's fruit [as motive] (mā + karma-phala-hetuḥ + bhūḥ)
- mā te saṅgo'stv akarmaṇiमा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्व् अकर्मणि
- let there be no attachment in you to inaction (mā + te + saṅgaḥ + astu + akarmaṇi)
टीका
Site Commentary
“Adhikāra” — rendered here as “business,” but closer to jurisdiction or authority — is an administrative word, not an emotional one. Krishna isn’t consoling Arjuna about outcomes he can’t control; he’s defining the boundary of what Arjuna actually has authority over, the way a job description defines scope. Read as a scope statement rather than a comfort statement, the verse is asking for clarity about where authority legitimately ends, not equanimity as a feeling to be summoned.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
इस श्लोक को अपनाएँ
पाठ
व्यक्तिगत
- When you're anxious about an outcome, ask specifically where your actual authority ends — not as a way to stop caring, but to stop spending effort managing something that was never within your jurisdiction to control in the first place.
व्यावसायिक
- When you're accountable for an outcome that depends on variables outside your control, get explicit about the boundary of what you actually have authority over, and put your full effort there — anxiety about the rest doesn't expand your actual scope.
परिवार और समाज
- When you're worried about how a choice you've made for someone else will turn out, remind yourself where your actual responsibility ends — you're accountable for doing your part well, not for controlling how another person's life unfolds from there.
स्वयं से पूछें
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