सर्वधर्मान् परित्यज्य माम् एकं शरणं व्रज । अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥
sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja | ahaṃ tvā sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ ||
Abandon all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone — I will liberate you from all sins; do not grieve.
Word by word (3)
- sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja
- — having completely abandoned (parityajya = pari + tyaj = completely-relinquishing) ALL dharmas (sarva-dharmān — the plural and sarva [all] are emphatic: not some dharmas, not most dharmas, but ALL; includes sva-dharma, varṇa-dharma, āśrama-dharma, dharmic injunctions, merit-producing rituals, all righteous deeds), come (vraja = go/come, imperative of vraj = to move toward) to Me alone (mām ekaṃ = Me + alone; ekaṃ is emphatic: ONE alone) as refuge (śaraṇam = shelter)
- ahaṃ tvā sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
- — I (ahaṃ = emphatic I, not merely the teaching but the Divine Person) will liberate (mokṣayiṣyāmi = will-cause-liberation, causative future of muc = to release; I WILL liberate — divine promise in first person) you (tvā = thee, accusative of tvam) from all sins (sarva-pāpebhyaḥ = from all pāpas/sins/negative karmas), do not grieve (mā śucaḥ = do not + śuc = do not grieve/mourn)
- mā śucaḥ
- — do not grieve; the final three words of the most secret verse — mā śucaḥ. This exact phrase appears three times in the Gita: Ch.2 V27 (mā śucaḥ — on the inevitability of death), Ch.18 V66, and implicitly throughout. Here it is the divine reassurance after the most radical instruction: 'I take full responsibility for your liberation — do not be afraid, do not grieve.' The grief-release is the natural fruit of complete surrender (sarva-dharmān parityajya + śaraṇam vraja) — when you surrender all, there is nothing left to grieve about.
Having abandoned all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone. I will liberate you from all sins. Do not grieve.
A modern analogy
V66 is the Gita's ultimate surrender verse. Imagine a child who has been trying to find their way home through a complex city — following maps, asking directions, taking various routes (all the dharmas). Then a parent appears and says: 'Drop all your maps and plans. Come to me alone. I will take you home. Don't worry.' The child's complete surrender to the parent's guidance (sarva-dharmān parityajya + mām ekaṃ śaraṇam vraja) is rewarded with the promise: 'I WILL take you home' (mokṣayiṣyāmi) + 'don't be afraid' (mā śucaḥ).
V66 is the charama śloka (final/ultimate verse) — the most important verse in the entire Gita according to the Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition and widely recognized as such across traditions. It is the culmination of the entire teaching: after 18 chapters of dharma, yoga, jñāna, karma, bhakti, and guṇa-analysis, the final teaching is: abandon ALL of it and come to Me alone. This is not nihilism (abandon all dharma and do anything you want) — it is ultimate surrender: surrender even the effort of doing dharma correctly, surrender the anxiety about one's sins, surrender to the One who takes all responsibility for liberation.
Sarva-dharmān parityajya has generated enormous commentarial controversy. What does 'abandon all dharmas' mean? The key interpretations: (1) Śaṃkara/Advaita: abandon the doership-consciousness attached to all dharmas — not the actions themselves but the ego-identification with doing-dharma; (2) Rāmānuja/Viśiṣṭādvaita: surrender all dharmas AS the means of reaching the Divine; the Divine's grace is the only actual means; our dharmic efforts are subsidiary; (3) Mādhva/Dvaita: abandon reliance on dharmic effort as the CAUSE of liberation, placing total trust in the Divine's grace. All agree: the verse is about complete surrender, not abandonment of ethical life.
Advaita lens
Sarva-dharmān parityajya from the advaita standpoint means: abandon even the notion that you are a dharma-performer (kartā of dharmas). All dharmas operate in the realm of Prakṛti/māyā — they belong to the jīva-level, not the ātman-level. The ultimate surrender is the recognition that the ātman (= Brahman) never performed any dharma to begin with — it was always Prakṛti acting through the upādhis. Mām ekaṃ śaraṇam vraja = rest in ātman-brahma identity. Ahaṃ tvā mokṣayiṣyāmi = the ātman itself liberates the jīva from the false identification with the doer of dharmas. Mā śucaḥ = there is no sin in the ultimate truth; pāpa belongs to the empirical ego-level, not to the ātman.
Bhakti lens
V66 is the supreme bhakti-teaching, the distillation of the entire bhakti tradition. Sarva-dharmān parityajya means: do not rely on your own merit, ritual correctness, or dharmic effort as the CAUSE of the Divine's love or your liberation. Come to Me alone (mām ekaṃ) — the Divine is the only refuge, entirely sufficient. Ahaṃ tvā mokṣayiṣyāmi is the divine promise of unconditional liberation through surrender: Divine grace takes over completely when the ego-effort surrenders. Mā śucaḥ = the deepest bhakti is free from fear: when the Beloved has promised liberation, what is there to grieve? This is prapatti (complete surrender) at its fullest — the path of śaraṇāgati.
Karma-Yoga lens
V66 from the karma-yoga perspective resolves the final tension: the karma-yogī has been doing svadharma (V42-47), offering it to the Divine (V46), achieving naiṣkarmya (V49), and now reaches the point where even the FRAMEWORK of 'doing dharma' is surrendered. Sarva-dharmān parityajya is the karma-yogī arriving at the summit: not abandoning action, but surrendering the identity as dharma-performer. Mām ekaṃ śaraṇam vraja = the karma-yogī's mac-citta (V57) becoming so complete that even the 'I who acts according to dharma' dissolves into the One. The karma-yoga journey ends in the same place as jñāna and bhakti: total surrender to the Divine.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Abandoning all righteous deeds, seek Me as thy sole Refuge; I will liberate thee from all sins; do thou not grieve. [1]
Relinquishing all Dharmas take refuge in Me alone; I will liberate thee from all sins; grieve not. [4]
MISSING from index. [9]
Forsaking all religious duties, come to Me as thy sole refuge. I will deliver thee from all sins. Do not grieve. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Learn briefly from Me how one who has attained siddhi attains Brahman — the supreme culmination of knowledge.
Endued with pure buddhi, regulating self with dhṛti, renouncing sense-objects, setting aside rāga-dveṣa —
Even doing all actions always, with refuge in Me — by My grace one attains the eternal imperishable abode.
One with no ego-doer-sense, whose buddhi is untainted — even while killing all these beings, kills not, is not bound.
By bhakti one truly knows what and who I am; then knowing Me truly, one enters into Me immediately.
Those whose sin has ended — virtuous in deed, freed from dvandva-delusion — worship Me with firm resolve.