एतान्य् अपि तु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलानि च । कर्तव्यानीति मे पार्थ निश्चितं मतम् उत्तमम् ॥
etāny api tu karmāṇi saṅgaṃ tyaktvā phalāni ca | kartavyānīti me pārtha niścitaṃ matam uttamam ||
Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — my settled, highest opinion.
Word by word (3)
- etāny api tu karmāṇi saṅgaṃ tyaktvā phalāni ca
- — but (tu api) even these (etāni) actions (karmāṇi) — referring to V5's yajña-dāna-tapas — should be performed having abandoned (tyaktvā) attachment (saṅga) and fruits (phalāni ca)
- kartavyānīti me pārtha niścitaṃ matam uttamam
- — they must be done (kartavyāni = duty-bound) — thus (iti) this is My (me) definitive (niścitam = settled, certain) and highest/most excellent (uttamam) opinion/teaching (matam)
- niścitam matam uttamam
- — settled + opinion + most excellent = the triple emphasis; niścita = no ambiguity; matam = my position; uttama = the highest — Krishna stakes his greatest authority on this teaching: even sacred acts require saṅga-tyāga and phala-tyāga
But even these actions (yajña, gift, and austerity) should be performed, having abandoned attachment and fruits. This, O Pārtha, is My definitive and highest opinion.
A modern analogy
V6 is the crucial qualification to V5: 'yes, yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed (V5) — BUT they must be performed without attachment to the practice OR its fruits (V6).' It's the difference between a doctor who does excellent medicine with ego-investment in outcomes vs. one who practices with full commitment but without attachment to results or reputation. V6 = the inner posture that makes V5's obligatory acts genuinely liberating.
V6 completes the V5-V6 unit: V5 = the external obligation (yajña-dāna-tapas kāryam eva), V6 = the inner qualification (saṅga + phala tyāgaḥ). Together these two verses define the Gita's concept of karma yoga at its most precise: the prescribed action + the inner release. The niścitam matam uttamam (definitive highest teaching) signals that this is the Gita's summit position — the resolution of the sannyāsa/tyāga debate stated in V1. V7-9 will then give the three-fold tyāga varieties (tāmasic/rājasic/sāttvic) as applications of this principle.
Saṅga-tyāga (abandoning attachment) is different from phala-tyāga (abandoning fruit). Saṅga = the emotional clinging to the act itself, the identity-investment ('I am a yajña-performer'); phala = the result-expectation ('this yajña will bring me X'). Both must be released. The action continues fully — kāryam eva — but the actor is no longer bound to the act or its outcome. This is the Gita's complete answer to the doer-versus-renouncer debate.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
But even those actions should be performed, setting aside attachment and the fruits; this, O son of Pritha, is My firm and highest belief. [1]
MISSING from index (SW index has mahatmya verses at 18.6). Ganguli and Telang used. [4]
Abandoning attachment and fruit; such is my excellent and decided opinion. [9]
But even those works should be done, abandoning attachment and fruit. This, O son of Pritha, is my excellent and decided opinion. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Some say all karma is faulty and should be abandoned; others say yajña-dāna-tapas must not be abandoned.
Therefore: do your required action without attachment — this is the path that leads to the Supreme.
Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.
Sāttvic tyāga: niyata karma done ONLY because 'this must be done,' having abandoned attachment and fruit.
Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.
Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal — then engage. No sin follows from this.