Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 2 · Verse 47

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते

A source-grounded reference for one of the Bhagavad Gita’s best-known teachings on action, its fruits, and the danger of turning non-attachment into inaction.

Canonical SanskritIASTSource-linkedVerified 21 August 2026

Canonical text

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥ २.४७ ॥

IAST transliteration

karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana |
mā karmaphalahetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stv akarmaṇi || 2.47 ||

Textual presentation note: source editions may print the phrase as भूः मा or, with external sandhi carried into continuous text, भूर्मा. This page displays the continuous sandhi form while recording the underlying source variation; it does not treat that printing difference as a different verse.

Phrase by phrase

A careful reading without flattening the Sanskrit

These glosses are learning aids, not claims that one English word exhausts each Sanskrit term.

karmaṇi eva

In action itself

Karmaṇi is the locative form of karman, action or deed; eva adds emphasis such as “only” or “indeed.” In the immediate teaching, the verse directs attention toward what is to be done rather than toward possession of the result.

adhikāras te

Your scope or claim

Adhikāra can carry senses such as authority, entitlement, qualification, scope, or claim depending on context. “Your sphere” is used here to avoid implying that every later legal or philosophical sense of “right” is contained in this one occurrence.

mā phaleṣu kadācana

Never in the fruits

Phala literally means fruit and commonly functions here as the result or outcome of action. Mā … kadācana gives the prohibitive force: do not locate the claim in those fruits at any time.

mā karmaphalahetur bhūḥ

Do not make the fruit the motive

The compound joins action and fruit. Traditional commentaries explain this clause through their own doctrinal frameworks, but both the verse and those readings resist making the sought result the governing reason for action.

mā te saṅgo ’stv akarmaṇi

Do not attach yourself to inaction

The final clause matters because it blocks an easy misreading: non-attachment to results is not an instruction to avoid action altogether. Saṅga is attachment or clinging; akarmaṇi is in non-action or inaction.

Scriptural context

What verse 2.47 is doing in Chapter 2

Bhagavad Gita 2.47 appears in Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna during the long second chapter. The immediate sequence has already turned from Arjuna’s collapse at the prospect of battle toward disciplined understanding and action. This verse does not stand alone as a slogan about productivity. Its final clause — the warning against attachment to inaction — is part of the verse itself and is essential to reading it as a whole.

For a reference library, that context changes how the verse should be presented. A short motivational paraphrase can preserve the first half while accidentally dropping the second half. SlokaSandra therefore keeps the complete Sanskrit text visible, gives the source location as Bhagavad Gita 2.47, and separates a plain-language rendering from traditional commentary. Readers can see where the text ends and where explanation begins.

The verse also sits next to 2.48, which develops the instruction through steadiness in success and failure. That nearby context is one reason many teachers connect 2.47 with the Gita’s larger treatment of disciplined action. This page does not claim that every Vedanta tradition interprets the verse identically. It records a shared textual center and then points readers toward named commentarial sources for tradition-specific reading.

Traditional commentary note

Different commentarial frameworks, a shared warning against fruit-driven action and inaction

The Sanskrit Wikisource transcription of Ramanuja’s commentary presents 2.47 in the context of the aspirant’s duty: action is to be performed without claiming its fruits, and the absence of a claim to fruit must not become attachment to non-performance. The commentary’s theological and soteriological framing belongs to Ramanuja’s tradition and should be read as such.

The Wikisource edition containing Madhusudana Saraswati’s Gūḍhārthadīpikā and Śrīdhara Svami’s notes also prints the verse and explains the rejection of fruit-desire together with the rejection of attachment to not acting. Those commentaries frame the teaching through their own concepts and are not interchangeable with Ramanuja’s reading. SlokaSandra uses them here to show that the page’s basic contextual warning is source-grounded without pretending there is only one traditional interpretation.

Learn carefully

Break the verse into four sense units

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्तेkarmaṇy evādhikāras te
मा फलेषु कदाचनmā phaleṣu kadācana
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूःmā karmaphalahetur bhūḥ
मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणिmā te saṅgo ’stv akarmaṇi

Audio status: awaiting verified recitation.

No recitation is published on this page yet. SlokaSandra will not label generated or unreviewed pronunciation as authoritative. When verified audio is added, it will remain an in-site listening experience rather than a download feature.

Sources & provenance

What was checked for this page

Canonical text and contextual notes were cross-checked against Sanskrit textual/commentarial transcriptions. Verification date: 21 August 2026.

Ramanuja commentary, Chapter 2

Used to verify the verse location/text and to ground the Ramanuja-specific interpretive note. The source prints the pre-sandhi separation भूः मा in its displayed verse.

Open Sanskrit Wikisource source →

Madhusudana Saraswati / Śrīdhara Svami commentary edition

Used to cross-check the continuous verse form and to ground the note that fruit-desire and attachment to inaction are both addressed in traditional commentary.

Open Sanskrit Wikisource source →

Historical Bhagavad Gita edition — Annie Besant & Bhagavan Das, p. 91

Used as an additional textual cross-check and word-gloss reference. The Wikisource scan/transcription displays Bhagavad Gita 2.47 with the continuous sandhi form.

Open Sanskrit Wikisource scan →

Media provenance: no deity artwork or audio has been added to this page. That omission is intentional until SlokaSandra has a clearly licensed/original image and a pronunciation-reviewed recitation suitable for publication.