Non-Attachment

Acting fully while letting go of outcomes — 97 verses, starred ones first.

1. 1.1 ★ A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.
2. 2.47 ★ Your right is to act — never to the fruits. Don't act for results. Don't hide in inaction.
3. 2.48 ★ Do the work rooted in yoga, unattached. Equanimity in success and failure — that IS yoga.
4. 2.62 ★ Thinking → clinging → craving → anger. The chain of suffering begins in where you let your mind dwell.
5. 3.19 ★ Therefore: do your required action without attachment — this is the path that leads to the Supreme.
6. 9.26 ★ A leaf, a flower, a fruit, a drop of water — offered with devotion, I receive it: the striving heart's gift is enough.
7. 11.55 ★ Do My work, hold Me supreme, be My devotee, attachment-free, without enmity toward all — such a one comes to Me!
8. 6.1 ☆ Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.
9. 6.8 ☆ Satisfied by knowledge and realisation, senses mastered, gold and mud equally seen — this is the true steadfast yogi.
10. 6.15 ☆ Practising thus always, with a controlled mind — the yogi reaches the supreme peace of nirvāṇa, abiding in the Supreme.
11. 6.22 ☆ Once that joy is found, no other gain seems greater — established in it, even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake you.
12. 6.27 ☆ Supreme bliss comes naturally to the yogi whose mind is fully at peace, passion quieted, stainless — Brahman-become.
13. 7.1 ☆ With mind attached, practising yoga, taking refuge in Me — hear how you shall know Me fully, without doubt.
14. 7.23 ☆ The fruit of those of little understanding is finite — god-worshippers go to the gods; My devotees come to Me.
15. 15.20 ☆ This most secret śāstra spoken — knowing it, one becomes truly wise and kṛta-kṛtya: all duties fulfilled.
16. 18.2 ☆ Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.
17. 18.9 ☆ Sāttvic tyāga: niyata karma done ONLY because 'this must be done,' having abandoned attachment and fruit.
18. 1.31 Victory without the people you love — what does it cost, and what is it worth?
19. 2.38 Treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat as equal — then engage. No sin follows from this.
20. 2.44 Minds absorbed in pleasure and power cannot settle into the resolute intelligence — they are carried away.
21. 2.49 Acting for reward is the lowest form of action. Seek the wisdom that transcends reward-seeking.
22. 2.51 Wise action without fruit-seeking breaks the birth-cycle and leads to the sorrowless state.
23. 2.57 No sticky attachment anywhere — meeting good or bad without rejoicing or hatred. Wisdom firmly rooted.
24. 3.7 Inner control → outer action without attachment = karma-yoga. That person genuinely excels.
25. 3.9 Action done as an offering (yajna) does not bind. All other action creates bondage. Do your work as offering.
26. 3.18 For the fully realized: neither action nor inaction gains or loses anything. They depend on no being for any purpose.
27. 3.25 The wise act like the unwise — same actions, same engagement — but without attachment, for the world's welfare.
28. 3.28 The tattva-vit sees gunas moving among gunas and does not become attached. Knowledge itself produces liberation.
29. 4.10 Many, freed from attachment, fear, and anger, purified by knowledge-austerity — have attained My being.
30. 4.12 Those seeking results worship the gods who grant results. Quick success comes from action in the human world.
31. 4.14 Actions don't taint Me — I have no longing for their fruits. Whoever knows Me thus is not bound by their actions.
32. 4.20 Attachment to fruits abandoned, ever content, no dependence — fully active yet truly doing nothing at all.
33. 4.23 For the liberated one — attachment gone, mind settled in knowledge, acting for yajna — all karma completely dissolves.
34. 4.35 Knowing this you will not fall into delusion again — you will see all beings in the Self, and thus in Me.
35. 5.4 Only the immature see Sānkhya and Yoga as separate — the wise know one path, practiced rightly, yields both fruits.
36. 5.10 Surrendering all actions to Brahman, abandoning attachment — like a lotus leaf, sin never clings.
37. 5.11 Yogis act with body, mind, intellect, and bare senses — abandoning attachment — solely for self-purification.
38. 5.12 The yogi abandons fruit and attains lasting peace. The non-yogi, bound to fruit by desire, is fettered.
39. 5.14 The Lord creates neither doership, actions, nor fruit-unions for the world — svabhāva alone operates.
40. 5.21 Unattached to outer touches, finding joy within — joined to Brahman-yoga, the soul enjoys inexhaustible bliss.
41. 6.2 What they call sannyāsa — know it as yoga, O Pāṇḍava — for none becomes a yogī without renouncing saṃkalpa.
42. 6.3 For the aspiring muni, action is the means to yoga; for the one ascended to yoga, stillness (śama) is the means.
43. 6.4 When unattached to sense objects and to actions, and all saṃkalpas are renounced — then one is called yogārūḍha.
44. 7.22 With that faith, the devotee worships that deity and gains the desired objects — these being dispensed by Me alone.
45. 8.28 Transcending Vedic merit, sacrifice, austerity, and charity — the yogi knowing this reaches the primordial Supreme.
46. 9.9 These acts do not bind Me — I sit as one uninvolved, unattached to them, O Dhananjaya.
47. 9.28 Thus freed from karma's bonds — both good and evil fruits — unified in renunciation-yoga, liberated, you come to Me.
48. 12.11 Unable even to act for My sake? Then take refuge in Me, abandon all fruits of action — with self-restraint.
49. 12.12 Jñāna beats abhyāsa, dhyāna beats jñāna — but karma-phala-tyāga beats all; from tyāga, peace follows at once!
50. 12.18 Equal to enemy and friend, honor and dishonor, cold and heat, pleasure and pain — free from all attachment!
51. 13.10 Non-attachment + no identity-fusion with son/wife/home — and constant equanimity in good fortune and bad: this is jñāna.
52. 13.15 Brahman: seems to have all senses yet has none; unattached yet upholds all; nirguṇa yet the enjoyer of guṇas.
53. 13.22 Puruṣa in prakṛti enjoys guṇas — attachment to guṇas is the cause of birth in good and evil wombs.
54. 13.31 When the yogi sees all diversity resting in the One and spreading from that One alone — he becomes Brahman.
55. 14.1 Krishna reopens with the supreme jñāna above all knowledge — knowing which every muni has reached parāṃ siddhim.
56. 14.2 Those who resort to this knowledge attain My own nature — neither reborn at creation nor disturbed at dissolution.
57. 14.6 Sattva — luminous and stainless — yet binds the jīva through attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge.
58. 14.7 Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.
59. 14.9 Sattva binds to happiness; rajas to action; tamas veils wisdom and chains to heedlessness.
60. 14.15 Dying in rajas, one is born among the action-attached; dying in tamas, one is born in irrational wombs.
61. 14.16 The fruit of sattvic action is pure; the fruit of rajas is pain; the fruit of tamas is ignorance.
62. 14.17 Sattva begets wisdom; rajas begets greed; tamas begets heedlessness, delusion, and ignorance.
63. 14.20 Transcending the three guṇas, the embodied one is freed from birth-death-age-pain and attains immortality.
64. 15.3 The tree of saṃsāra has no graspable form, end, or origin — cut it with the firm axe of non-attachment.
65. 15.4 After cutting the tree, seek the no-return abode — taking refuge in the Primordial Puruṣa, source of all.
66. 15.5 Free from pride, moha, attachment and desire, the dvandva-unbound, undeluded ones reach the imperishable goal.
67. 15.19 Knowing Me as Puruṣottama without delusion, one becomes all-knowing and worships Me with whole being.
68. 16.22 Free from these three tamas-gates, one acts for one's genuine good and reaches the Supreme Goal.
69. 17.8 Sāttvic food enhances life, sattva, strength, health, joy, delight — savoury, oleaginous, substantial, heart-pleasing.
70. 17.9 Rājasic food: bitter, sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry, burning — loved by the rājasic; yields pain, grief, disease.
71. 17.11 Sāttvic yajña: performed as ordained, without fruit-desire, with the conviction 'this must be done.'
72. 17.12 Rājasic yajña: performed targeting fruit and for ostentation — know this, O best of Bharatas.
73. 17.17 Sāttvic tapas: the three-fold tapas practiced with supreme śraddhā, without fruit-desire, by the disciplined.
74. 17.18 Rājasic tapas: done for reception, honour, worship, and show — unstable and transient.
75. 17.20 Sāttvic dāna: given with 'this must be given,' to one expecting no return, at right place, time, and recipient.
76. 17.21 Rājasic dāna: given expecting reciprocity, or eyeing fruit, or reluctantly — held to be rājasic.
77. 17.25 Uttering 'Tat,' without fruit-desire, mokṣa-seekers perform yajña, tapas, and various acts of dāna.
78. 18.3 Some say all karma is faulty and should be abandoned; others say yajña-dāna-tapas must not be abandoned.
79. 18.5 Yajña, dāna, and tapas must NOT be abandoned — they must be performed; they are purifiers of the wise.
80. 18.6 Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — my settled, highest opinion.
81. 18.7 Renouncing ordained/niyata karma is not appropriate; its abandonment through delusion is declared tāmasic.
82. 18.8 Rājasic tyāga: abandoning action as painful/from fear of body-trouble — obtains no fruit of tyāga.
83. 18.10 The sāttvic tyāgī: neither hates difficult action nor clings to pleasant — sattva-pervaded, wise, doubts severed.
84. 18.11 No embodied being can abandon ALL action; the true tyāgī is the karma-phala-tyāgī — the fruit-abandoner.
85. 18.12 Three-fold karma-fruit (evil/good/mixed) accrues after death to non-tyāgīs — never at all to genuine renouncers.
86. 18.14 Five causes of action: body-locus, agent, various instruments, diverse efforts, and — fifth — the Divine/Fate.
87. 18.15 Whatever action a person initiates with body, speech, and mind — right or the reverse — these five are its causes.
88. 18.16 One who — given the five causes — sees the self alone as doer due to unrefined intellect sees not; that is durmati.
89. 18.22 Tāmasic jñāna: irrationally attached to one thing as if it were all — without truth-object, trivial, declared tāmasic.
90. 18.23 Sāttvic karma: prescribed, attachment-free, without rāga-dveṣa, by one not seeking fruit.
91. 18.24 Rājasic karma: done desiring pleasures or with ego-pride, involving great effort.
92. 18.26 Sāttvic kartā: attachment-free, non-egotistic, firm, enthusiastic, unmoved by success or failure.
93. 18.27 Rājasic kartā: passionate, fruit-desiring, greedy, cruel-natured, impure, subject to elation and sorrow.
94. 18.28 Tāmasic kartā: undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, procrastinating.
95. 18.34 Rājasic dhṛti: holds fast to dharma, kāma, and artha with attachment, desiring the fruit of each.
96. 18.49 The unattached-minded, self-conquered, desire-free one attains supreme naiskarmya-siddhi through sannyāsa.
97. 18.53 Releasing ego, power, arrogance, kāma, krodha, possessions — free from mine-ness, tranquil — fit for becoming Brahman.