कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana / mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi
Your right is to act — never to the fruits. Don't act for results. Don't hide in inaction.
Word by word (4)
- karmaṇi eva adhikāraḥ te
- — your right is to action alone · 'Adhikāra' — right, authority, entitlement. Your domain — what you actually have jurisdiction over — is the action. Not the result. This is not merely advice; it is a description of reality.
- mā phaleṣu kadācana
- — never to the fruits thereof · 'Phaleṣu' — in the fruits/results. 'Mā' — never. Not 'sometimes try not to focus on results' but 'never has your claim extended to the fruits.' The absoluteness of 'kadācana' (at any time) is deliberate.
- mā karma-phala-hetuḥ bhūḥ
- — let not the fruits of action be your motive · 'Karma-phala-hetu' — one who acts for the sake of the fruit. The motive for action must not be the desired result. The result is not in your jurisdiction; if it were your motive, you would be acting from what you do not control.
- mā te saṅgaḥ astu akarmaṇi
- — let there be no attachment in you to inaction · 'Akarmaṇi' — to inaction, to not-doing. The teaching closes a third door: not 'act selfishly,' not 'don't act for results,' but also not 'therefore don't act at all.' The teaching is engagement from equanimity, not withdrawal.
'Your right is to action alone — never to the fruits of action. Let not the fruits of action be your motive. And let there be no attachment in you to inaction.'
A modern analogy
A surgeon operates with full skill and care — not because they are guaranteed the patient will live, but because right action is what a surgeon does. The outcome is in the domain of biology, fortune, disease. The action is in the surgeon's domain. V47 says: stay in your domain. Act from there. The fruits will be what they will be — that is not your jurisdiction.
Take with you
- Four clauses, one teaching: act (V1), don't grasp the result (V2), don't make results your motivation (V3), don't use this as an excuse not to act (V4).
- 'Adhikāra' — jurisdiction. This is ontological, not just advisory: you literally do not have jurisdiction over the fruits. They are determined by the entire universe, not just your will.
- The teaching does not say outcomes don't matter. It says grasping at outcomes you don't control distorts the action and makes action a source of suffering rather than rightness.
Verse 47 is the distillation of the entire Karma Yoga teaching into four phrases. It is the most quoted verse in the Gita and arguably in all of Sanskrit literature. The structure is precise: Clause 1: 'karmaṇy evādhikāras te' — 'your right is to action alone.' 'Adhikāra' means right, authority, qualification, jurisdiction. You are authorized to act — that is your domain. Clause 2: 'mā phaleṣu kadācana' — 'never to the fruits.' The fruits are not in your jurisdiction — ever. This is not a counsel of pessimism but of accuracy: the result of any action is determined by countless factors beyond your control. Treating the result as your domain is a fundamental category error. Clause 3: 'mā karma-phala-hetur bhūḥ' — 'let not the fruit of action be your motive.' The motive (hetu) for action must not be the desired result. Why? Because if your motivation is the result (which is not in your control), you have made your motivation dependent on something you cannot ensure. This generates anxiety, compromised action, and eventual suffering. Clause 4: 'mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi' — 'let there be no attachment to inaction.' The teaching cannot be used as a philosophical justification for doing nothing. The three possibilities — act for fruit, act without caring for fruit, don't act — and the Gita endorses only the middle one, explicitly blocking the other two.
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya: the 'te' (your) in 'adhikāras te' is significant. Who is the 'you' that has this right to action? The individual person (jīva) — not the Atman, which neither acts nor is acted upon. So the teaching is addressed to the person embedded in the world, who must act — but can learn to act without the ego's grasping. The ultimate Advaita understanding: when the ego-self dissolves into the Atman, even the actor disappears — but until then, V47 is the practice.
Bhakti lens
Ramanuja: the surrender of the fruits (mā phaleṣu) becomes, in bhakti, an offering to God: 'I act and surrender the fruit to You.' This transforms Karma Yoga into bhakti: the action is performed as worship, the result is given to the Beloved. V47 is the seed; Ch.18's 'sarva-karmāṇi mayi sannyasya' (renounce all actions to Me) is the flower.
Karma-Yoga lens
Tilak: this is the teaching that the Gita builds the entire first section (Ch.1-12) to reach. The warrior must act. The yogi must act. But action from attachment is bondage; action from equanimity is liberation. V47 gives the formula. The rest of the Gita unpacks it.
Modern parallels
Control theory in modern psychology (DBT, ACT) makes a similar distinction: the 'sphere of control' (what you can actually influence) vs. 'sphere of concern' (what you care about but cannot control). Most anxiety arises from treating the sphere of concern as the sphere of control. Viktor Frankl, in Man's Search for Meaning, discovered V47's teaching in Auschwitz: even when everything external is taken — including life — the freedom to choose one's inner response remains. That is the 'adhikāra' (jurisdiction) that can never be taken: the freedom to act from what is right, regardless of what happens. The Stoics: 'Amor fati' (love of fate) + 'memento mori' (acceptance of death) = the capacity to act fully while releasing the result. Epictetus distinguishes between 'what is up to us' (our will, judgments, actions) and 'what is not up to us' (outcomes, others' opinions, the body). V47's adhikāra corresponds precisely to 'what is up to us.'
Practice
Before any significant action today, pause for 30 seconds. Name the action you are about to take. Name the outcome you are hoping for. Consciously place the outcome in a different category: 'This is not in my jurisdiction. It is in the domain of karma, nature, the universe.' Now ask: what is the right action here, independent of the outcome? Do that action. After it is done, say inwardly: 'The action is given. The fruit is released.' Repeat daily. Notice, over weeks, what changes in the quality of your engagement.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
Your right is to action alone, not to the fruits thereof at any time; let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction. [1]
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. [4]
Thy business is with the deed and not the fruit thereof; let not then the fruit of action be thy motive, nor yet be thou to inaction attached. [5]
Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in action, O Arjuna! Let your actions be the worship of God. [6]
Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in action! Labour! Make thine acts thy piety, casting all self aside, contemning gain and merit. [7]
You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal — then engage. No sin follows from this.
Therefore: do your required action without attachment — this is the path that leads to the Supreme.
Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — my settled, highest opinion.
Unable even to act for My sake? Then take refuge in Me, abandon all fruits of action — with self-restraint.
Do the work rooted in yoga, unattached. Equanimity in success and failure — that IS yoga.
Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.