Sanskrit · Devanagari
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
Sanskrit · IAST
karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karmaphalaheturbhūrmā te saṅgo.astvakarmaṇi
English witness
Kashinath Trimbak Telang, 1882Your business is with action alone not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive (to action). Let not your attachment be (fixed) on inaction.
This verse-level alignment is machine-assisted and awaits two independent human checks. Confidence signal: 65%.
Compare readings
29 translations and commentaries are aligned to this verse. Choose up to three; the root verse and Telang witness stay above them.
Śaṅkarācārya
।।2.47।। कर्मण्येव अधिकारः न ज्ञाननिष्ठायां ते तव। तत्र च कर्म कुर्वतः मा फलेषु अधिकारः अस्तु कर्मफलतृष्णा मा भूत् कदाचन कस्याञ्चिदप्यवस्थायामित्यर्थः। यदा कर्मफले तृष्णा ते स्यात् तदा कर्मफलप्राप्तेः हेतुः स्याः एवं मा कर्मफलहेतुः भूः। यदा हि कर्मफलतृष्णाप्रयुक्तः कर्मणि प्रवर्तते तदा कर्मफलस्यैव जन्मनो हेतुर्भवेत्। यदि कर्मफलं नेष्यते किं कर्मणा दुःखरूपेण इति मा ते तव सङ्गः अस्तु अकर्मणि अकरणे प्रीतिर्मा भूत्।।यदि कर्मफलप्रयुक्तेन न कर्तव्यं कर्म कथं तर्हि कर्तव्यमिति उच्यते
2fc8ef8da019…Rāmānuja
2.47 As for obligatory, occasional and desiderative acts taught in the Vedas and associated with some result or other, you, an aspirant established in Sattva, have the right only to perform them: You have no right to the fruits known to be derived from such acts. Acts done with a desire for fruit bring about bondage. But acts done without an eye on fruits form My worship and become a means for release. Do not become an agent of acts with the idea of being the reaper of their fruits. Even when you, who are established in pure Sattva and are desrious of release, perform acts, you should not look upon yourself as the agent. Likewise, it is necessary to contemplate yourself as not being the cause of even appeasing hunger and such other bodily necessities. Later on it will be said that both of these, agency of action and desire for fruits, should be considered as belonging to Gunas, or in the alternative to Me who am the Lord of all. Thinking thus, do work. With regard to inaction, i.e., abstaining from performance of duties, as when you said, 'I will not fight,' let there be no attachment to such inaction in you. The meaning is let your interest be only in the discharge of such obligatory duties like this war in the manner described above. Sri Krsna makes this clear in the following verse:
f71925092005…Swami Sivananda
2.47 कर्मणि in work? एव only? अधिकारः right? ते thy? मा not? फलेषु in the fruits? कदाचन at any time? मा not? कर्मफलहेतुः भूः let not the fruits of action be thy motive? मा not? ते thy? सङ्गः attachment? अस्तु let (there) be? अकर्मणि in inaction.Commentary When you perform actions have no desire for the fruits thereof under any circumstances. If you thirst for the fruits of your actions? you will have to take birth again and again to enjoy them. Action done with expectation of fruits (rewards) brings bondage. If you do not thirst for them? you get purification of heart and you will get knowledge of the Self through purity of heart and through the knowledge of the Self you will be freed from the round of births and deaths.Neither let thy attachment be towards inaction thinking what is the use of doing actions when I cannot get any reward for themIn a broad sense Karma means action. It also means duty which one has to perform according to his caste or station of life. According to the followers of the Karma Kanda of the Vedas (the Mimamsakas) Karma means the rituals and sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas. It has a deep meaning also. It signifies the destiny or the storehouse of tendencies of a man which give rise to his future birth.
87678d1ef57d…These supplied texts come from the pinned VedicScriptures dataset under GPL-3.0 and await independent alignment review.