Sanskrit
न कर्मणामनारम्भान्नैष्कर्म्यं पुरुषोऽश्नुते । न च संन्यसनादेव सिद्धिं समधिगच्छति ॥
na karmaṇām anārambhān naiṣkarmyaṃ puruṣo'śnute na ca saṃnyasanād eva siddhiṃ samadhigacchati
Translation
Man winneth not freedom from action by abstaining from activity, nor by mere renunciation doth he rise to perfection.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This directly answers the assumption buried in Arjuna’s verse 1 — that not-acting is a viable alternative to acting. Krishna denies it on two fronts at once: refusing to start acting doesn’t itself grant freedom from action (naiṣkarmya), and formally renouncing (saṃnyāsa) doesn’t by itself deliver perfection either. Both half-measures fail; verse 5 explains why abstention is impossible in principle, not just inadvisable in practice.
Concepts