A core teaching · grounding in mood · a little context helps
“Offering your work to the source of life turns ordinary action into fulfillment.”
By worshipping the one from whom all beings arise and by whom this whole world is pervaded, a person attains perfection through their own work.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallyfrom whom · arising · of beings · by whom · all this · is pervaded · by one's own work · that · having worshipped · perfection · attains · a person
A person reaches fulfillment by offering their own work to the source of all beings and all existence.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Moksha Sanyasa Yoga" (Liberation through Renunciation).
Verse 46 sits in Chapter 18 of the Bhagavad Gita — Moksha Sanyasa Yoga, "Liberation through Renunciation". The chapter has 78 verses in total.
A woman spends her evenings caring for her bedridden father, a task nobody at her office knows about. Krishna would count that work, offered to the source of all beings, as worship that brings her to fulfilment.
Did you like this verse?
You reach perfection, Krishna says, by worshipping through your own work the source that pervades all beings.
What this verse means
A person reaches fulfillment by offering their own work to the source of all beings and all existence.
Context & commentary
Krishna answers Arjuna, for whom duty feels unbearable and every choice seems charged with loss. After explaining that people are fulfilled through their own work, he adds the further reason: work itself becomes complete when it is offered to the source behind all life.
What it looks like today
A woman spends her evenings caring for her bedridden father, a task nobody at her office knows about. Krishna would count that work, offered to the source of all beings, as worship that brings her to fulfilment.
“Your daily effort can feel sacred, not ordinary.”
Explore related themes: karma yoga (55 verses)