The Gita treats karma less as a moral scoreboard and more as instructions on how to act. These ten shlokas are the core.
Karma quotes from the Bhagavad Gita usually get pulled out of context. This page keeps them in context — each shloka below has the Sanskrit original, IAST transliteration, English meaning and a one-line essence. If you want the deeper interpretation of what karma actually means in the Gita, read Karma in the Bhagavad Gita: The Real Meaning or the topic page for karma phala (fruit of action).
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana | mā karmaphalahetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi ||
Your right is to the work, never its fruits. Don't make the fruit your motive, or cling to inaction.
In context
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but never to their fruits. Never consider yourself the cause of the results, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
Four instructions in one verse: act; do not claim the fruit; do not let the anticipated fruit be your motive; do not use this teaching to justify inaction. The last instruction is specifically there to prevent the misreading of the first three.
“Do your duty. Let go of the outcome. Both halves matter.”
Read the full verse page for 2.47 →
योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय । सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते ॥
yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṃ tyaktvā dhanañjaya | siddhyasiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṃ yoga ucyate ||
Act from steadiness, free of attachment, the same in success and failure. That evenness is yoga.
In context
Established in yoga, O Arjuna, do your work — abandoning attachment, remaining even in success and failure. This evenness of mind is what is called yoga.
This is the Gita's working definition of yoga: samatvam, evenness of mind. It means staying steady through the swing between elation and despair that success and failure bring, while still caring about the work.
“Yoga is doing the work without letting outcomes swing you.”
Read the full verse page for 2.48 →
बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते । तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् ॥
buddhiyukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛtaduṣkṛte | tasmād yogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam ||
A steady mind moves past both merit and sin. So give yourself to yoga: yoga is skill in action.
In context
One with the yoga of wisdom rises above both good and bad actions here in this life. Therefore, strive for yoga — yoga is skill in action.
Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam, yoga is skill in action, is often quoted. The skill here is the inner one of acting without being bound by the action's karmic residue.
“Yoga is not withdrawing from action — it is skill in how you act.”
Read the full verse page for 2.50 →
यज्ञार्थात्कर्मणोऽन्यत्र लोकोऽयं कर्मबन्धनः । तदर्थं कर्म कौन्तेय मुक्तसङ्गः समाचर ॥
yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṃ karmabandhanaḥ | tadarthaṃ karma kaunteya muktasaṅgaḥ samācara ||
Work done for anything other than offering binds you. So, Arjuna, do your work as an offering, free of attachment.
In context
Action done for any reason other than as a sacred offering (yajna) creates bondage in this world. Therefore, O Arjuna, perform your duties as an offering, free from attachment.
The exact same action binds you if done with ego-craving and frees you if done as an offering. Yajna reframes the question from 'what will I get?' to 'what does this serve?' — and the quality of effort usually rises, not falls.
“Action done as offering frees you; action done for personal gain binds you.”
Read the full verse page for 3.9 →
तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर । असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः ॥
tasmād asaktaḥ satataṃ kāryaṃ karma samācara | asakto hy ācaran karma param āpnoti pūruṣaḥ ||
So always do the work that must be done, without attachment. Working without attachment, a person reaches the highest.
In context
Therefore, always perform your duty efficiently, without attachment. Acting unattached, a person reaches the highest.
Note the word satataṃ, always. Krishna describes a steady way of working at all times, including when the stakes are low, more than a technique saved for hard decisions.
“The person who acts without attachment reaches the highest.”
Read the full verse page for 3.19 →
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् । स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः ॥
śreyān svadharmo viguṇaḥ paradharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt | svadharme nidhanaṃ śreyaḥ paradharmo bhayāvahaḥ ||
Better your own dharma, done imperfectly, than another's done well. Even death in your own is better; another's brings fear.
In context
Even death in your own dharma is preferable; another's dharma is fraught with danger.
Svadharma is your own duty, the work that fits your nature and station. Krishna says even failing at it beats succeeding at someone else's, and he repeats the first line almost word for word in 18.47.
Read the full verse page for 3.35 →
कर्मण्यकर्म यः पश्येदकर्मणि च कर्म यः । स बुद्धिमान् मनुष्येषु स युक्तः कृत्स्नकर्मकृत् ॥
karmaṇy akarma yaḥ paśyed akarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ | sa buddhimān manuṣyeṣu sa yuktaḥ kṛtsnakarmakṛt ||
One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among people, steady in yoga, whatever they do.
In context
One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction — that one is wise among people, established in yoga, and has done all that needed to be done.
This paradox points at a real distinction. External busyness can be internal inaction (if the doer is absent). External stillness can be intense internal action. Karma is measured by the state of the actor more than by motion.
“Wisdom is seeing that action and inaction are inner states, not outer motions.”
Read the full verse page for 4.18 →
त्यक्त्वा कर्मफलासङ्गं नित्यतृप्तो निराश्रयः । कर्मण्यभिप्रवृत्तोऽपि नैव किञ्चित्करोति सः ॥
tyaktvā karmaphalāsaṅgaṃ nityatṛpto nirāśrayaḥ | karmaṇy abhipravṛtto 'pi naiva kiñcit karoti saḥ ||
Drop the clinging to results, stay content, lean on nothing, and even fully at work, you do nothing at all.
In context
Having given up attachment to the fruits of action, always content and independent, even while performing action he does nothing at all.
Nityatripta means always content, before any outcome arrives as well as after. The contentment comes first because it does not depend on the result, and that is how nishkama karma looks when it is working.
“Contentment without conditions. Action without doer-ship.”
Read the full verse page for 4.20 →
यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन । ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ॥
yathaidhāṃsi samiddho 'gnir bhasmasāt kurute 'rjuna | jñānāgniḥ sarvakarmāṇi bhasmasāt kurute tathā ||
As a blazing fire turns wood to ash, Arjuna, the fire of knowledge burns all karma to ash.
In context
As a blazing fire reduces wood to ashes, O Arjuna, the fire of knowledge reduces all karma to ashes.
A hopeful line about past karma. Krishna's image is a blazing fire that turns firewood to ash, and in the same way knowledge burns up the karma you have accumulated.
“Knowledge is the fire that burns all karma.”
Read the full verse page for 4.37 →
ब्रह्मण्याधाय कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा करोति यः । लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा ॥
brahmaṇy ādhāya karmāṇi saṅgaṃ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ | lipyate na sa pāpena padmapatram ivāmbhasā ||
Whoever acts without attachment, offering every action to the Divine, is untouched by sin, like a lotus leaf by water.
In context
One who performs actions, offering them to Brahman and abandoning attachment, is not touched by karmic residue — as a lotus leaf is not wet by water.
The image is precise: the lotus leaf sits in water but is never wet. The leaf stays dry because of what it is, while sitting in the water. In the same way the karma yogi, who offers every action to Brahman and gives up attachment, sits in action without being stained by sin.
“Act like a lotus leaf — in the water, but never wet by it.”
Read the full verse page for 5.10 →
Revised October 2026: noted that 3.35 is repeated in 18.47 and aligned the 3.35 wording with the rest of the site; copy edited.
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Send my weekThe best-known karma quote is Bhagavad Gita 2.47 — karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana — “You have a right to action, never to its fruits.” Other essential karma shlokas include 2.48 (evenness of mind is called yoga), 3.9 (action as yajna), 3.19 (always act unattached), 4.18 (see inaction in action), 4.37 (knowledge burns all karma) and 3.35, repeated in 18.47 (do your own duty).
Karma is discussed across the entire Bhagavad Gita, but Chapter 3 (Karma Yoga) is dedicated to it. The foundational verse is 2.47. Chapter 2 verses 47-51, Chapter 3 verses 1-35, Chapter 4 verses 14-24 and 37-42, and Chapter 5 verses 8-12 are the densest passages on karma.
Karmaṇyevādhikāraste (कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते) is the opening of BG 2.47 and means “you have a right to action alone.” The full shloka continues: mā phaleṣu kadācana (“never to its fruits”), mā karmaphalaheturbhūḥ (“do not let the fruit be your motive”) and mā te saṅgo'stvakarmaṇi (“nor let attachment be to inaction”). Four instructions in one verse.
No. BG 4.37 explicitly says knowledge (jñāna) burns all karma to ashes — the past need not bind you, because understanding burns it away. Karma in the Gita describes the chain between intention, action and consequence; it is not a cosmic sentencing system.