Sanskrit
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karmaphalahetur bhūr mā te saṅgo'stv akarmaṇi
Translation
Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The single most famous verse of the Gita, and the formal statement of karma yoga. You have standing over the action itself — the doing — but never over its fruit. The two clauses that follow close the obvious misreadings: don’t treat the fruit as your motive, and don’t use “I can’t control the outcome” as a reason to stop acting altogether. It’s a discipline of engaged, non-attached action, not detachment from action.
Concepts