Karma

Actions do not taint me, nor do I long for their fruits. One who understands me in this way is not bound by actions.

न मां कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा | इति मां योऽभिजानाति कर्मभिर्न स बध्यते ||४-१४||

You have a right to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन | मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ||२-४७||

Perform your prescribed action, for action is better than inaction; even the maintenance of your body could not be accomplished through inaction.

नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः | शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः ||३-८||

For no one can remain even for a moment without performing action; everyone is driven to act, helplessly, by the gunas born of nature.

न हि कश्चित्क्षणमपि जातु तिष्ठत्यकर्मकृत् | कार्यते ह्यवशः कर्म सर्वः प्रकृतिजैर्गुणैः ||३-५||

Not by abstaining from action does one attain freedom from action, nor by renunciation alone does one reach perfection.

न कर्मणामनारम्भान्नैष्कर्म्यं पुरुषोऽश्नुते | न च संन्यसनादेव सिद्धिं समधिगच्छति ||३-४||

Undesirable, desirable, and mixed — threefold is the fruit of action that accrues after death to those who do not relinquish, but never to those who renounce.

अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम् | भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित् ||१८-१२||

Whoever sees that actions are performed in every way by Prakriti alone, and that the self is not the doer — he truly sees.

प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वशः | यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ||१३-३०||

But these actions do not bind me, Arjuna. I remain seated as if indifferent, unattached to those actions.

न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय | उदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु ||९-९||

As a kindled fire reduces firewood to ashes, Arjuna, so the fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes.

यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन | ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ||४-३७||

Those who constantly follow this teaching of Mine, full of faith and free from envy, are also freed from the bondage of action.

ये मे मतमिदं नित्यमनुतिष्ठन्ति मानवाः | श्रद्धावन्तोऽनसूयन्तो मुच्यन्ते तेऽपि कर्मभिः ||३-३१||

One endowed with this wisdom casts off, even in this life, both good and evil deeds. Therefore devote yourself to yoga; yoga is skill in action.

बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते | तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् ||२-५०||

Its branches spread below and above, nourished by the gunas, with the sense-objects as its buds; and below, its roots stretch forth, binding to action, in the world of humans.

अधश्चोर्ध्वं प्रसृतास्तस्य शाखा गुणप्रवृद्धा विषयप्रवालाः | अधश्च मूलान्यनुसन्ततानि कर्मानुबन्धीनि मनुष्यलोके ||१५-२||

Know rajas to be of the nature of passion, arising from craving and attachment; it binds the embodied one through attachment to action, son of Kunti.

रजो रागात्मकं विद्धि तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् | तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ||१४-७||

For Purusha, seated in Prakriti, experiences the gunas born of Prakriti; attachment to the gunas is the cause of his births in good and evil wombs.

पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् | कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ||१३-२२||

Prakriti is said to be the cause in the production of body and its organs; Purusha is said to be the cause in the experiencing of pleasures and pains.

कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते | पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ||१३-२१||

The Blessed Lord said: Brahman is the supreme, the imperishable. The self's own essential nature is called the self-principle. The creative force that brings beings into existence is called action.

श्रीभगवानुवाच | अक्षरं ब्रह्म परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते | भूतभावोद्भवकरो विसर्गः कर्मसंज्ञितः ||८-३||

Those established in sattva go upward; the rajasic remain in the middle; those settled in the disposition of the lowest guna go downward.

ऊर्ध्वं गच्छन्ति सत्त्वस्था मध्ये तिष्ठन्ति राजसाः | जघन्यगुणवृत्तिस्था अधो गच्छन्ति तामसाः ||१४-१८||

They say the fruit of good action is sattvic and pure; but the fruit of rajas is pain, and the fruit of tamas is ignorance.

कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहुः सात्त्विकं निर्मलं फलम् | रजसस्तु फलं दुःखमज्ञानं तमसः फलम् ||१४-१६||

Thus you will be freed from the bonds of action, from its good and bad fruits. With your mind disciplined by the yoga of renunciation, liberated, you will come to me.

शुभाशुभफलैरेवं मोक्ष्यसे कर्मबन्धनैः | संन्यासयोगयुक्तात्मा विमुक्तो मामुपैष्यसि ||९-२८||

Having attained the worlds of those who do righteous deeds and dwelt there for countless years, the one fallen from yoga is reborn in the home of the pure and the prosperous.

प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः | शुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे योगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते ||६-४१||