Two questions press on these five verses. If the fruit is not to be the motive of action, what moves the action? And is it not a contradiction that the last verse promises the state beyond suffering as the result of giving up fruits (Gita 2.51)? A reader who takes the teaching seriously meets both at once.

The short answer to the first is that the fruit is dropped as a claim and as a fuel, and the work is moved by something steadier: duty, the wisdom that decides what is right, and in the Gita's fuller teaching, the offering of the work. The answer to the second is that the freedom of the last verse is not a price paid for dropping the fruit. It is what remains when clinging goes. If it were a price, the person would only have swapped a small fruit for a large one and would still be waiting on the outside.

The name "nishkama karma", action without desire, is the tradition's summary of the passage (nishkama karma). The verses themselves speak of a right to action, of giving up clinging, of evenness, of wisdom and of skill. Here we read them closely, one by one, then set them beside the rest of the Gita, state where the traditions read them differently, answer the objections, and take up the questions the verses leave a reader with. The simple reading and the detailed reading take the same verses at other levels.

Where the talk of fruits comes from

The word "fruit" in the first verse of the teaching answers something that came just before it (Gita 2.47). In the verses before, the Lord speaks of people of limited understanding who delight in flowery words, whose minds are full of desire, who hold heaven to be the highest goal, and who are drawn to many rites for enjoyment and power (Gita 2.42, Gita 2.43). Minds carried away by such words do not form the resolute intellect (Gita 2.44; see Buddhi Yoga).

So the fruit in view is wider than the outcome of a day's work. It covers the reward that rites are said to bring in the world beyond, and the Gita says elsewhere that the threefold fruit of action, agreeable, disagreeable and mixed, comes after death to those who have not relinquished (Gita 18.12; see Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action). The first verse of the teaching on action turns the listener from both kinds of fruit, the outcome in the world and the reward beyond it, to the work itself.

The five verses and how they fit together

The verses form one movement. The first draws the line between what is ours and what is not (Gita 2.47). The second says how to hold the work (Gita 2.48). The third gives the reason this is better (Gita 2.49). The fourth names it (Gita 2.50). The fifth shows where it leads (Gita 2.51). They come out of the teaching on the resolved intellect, which is read in Buddhi Yoga.

Four instructions that shut four escapes

The verse gives four instructions, and each shuts one escape. The first gives a right and limits it to action: you have the right to the work and to nothing beyond it. The word for right here does not mean ownership of results. It names what lies within a person's reach, and the shape of the sentence says that the work is what is within reach. This shuts the escape of carelessness, since a right to the work is a charge to do it.

The second instruction is that the right is never to the fruits, and the word "never" is unconditional. This shuts the escape of anxiety, because what is not ours cannot be held, and worry is an attempt to hold it.

The third is "do not be the cause of the fruit of action", and it carries two senses, both true. In the first, do not let the fruit be the motive of the work. In the second, do not think that you alone produce the fruit. The Gita supports the second sense where it counts five causes of any action: the seat, the doer, the instruments, the many kinds of effort and, as the fifth, fate (Gita 18.14, Gita 18.15; see Who Is the Doer?). A person is one of five. This shuts the escape of greed and pride.

The fourth is "let there be no attachment to inaction". It closes the escape of quitting: if the fruit is not mine, I may not drop the work. The question of why inaction is no way out is taken up in the next stop on the path, Can We Simply Stop Acting?, and it rests on the same point, that action is better than inaction (Gita 3.8).

Evenness is the meaning of yoga

The Lord says, "established in yoga, perform actions". The order is worth noticing. The steadiness is not a stage that comes before the action. It is the manner of the action. A person is asked to act while established, and to abandon clinging while acting (sanga).

The verse then defines the word: evenness in success and failure is called yoga (yoga). This is the first of two senses the passage gives to the word. The second, skill in action, comes two verses later (Gita 2.50). The two belong together, since a mind that stays even through both outcomes is a mind free to give its whole attention to the work. The evenness that the Lord means here is read in full in Equanimity, where the same pair of success and failure appears with pleasure and pain, and gain and loss (Gita 2.38).

Why action for results is lower

"Far inferior" compares two ways of doing the same work. One is done with desire for the result, and the other is done with the yoga of wisdom (buddhi). The comparison is about the source of the action and not about its amount. The Lord then advises, "seek refuge in wisdom". Refuge is a strong word. It treats wisdom as the place where action is decided, and the resolute intellect of the previous passage is that place (Gita 2.41).

The last clause calls those who are moved by fruits pitiable. It is a diagnosis of dependence: a person whose peace rests on what they cannot hold is always waiting. The word is pity and not scorn, said by a teacher to a friend.

Casting off both deeds

One endowed with wisdom casts off both good and bad deeds here in this life. Deeds have their effect, and the verse says that for the person who works without clinging, deeds do not bind, and this holds for good deeds as well as bad. What is in view is the bond and not the moral quality of the deed. The same point returns later, where one who offers everything is freed from the bonds of good and bad results (Gita 9.28).

Then comes the instruction, "strive for yoga", and the second definition: yoga is skill in action. Skill is undivided attention. A mind that is half on the task and half on its outcome is a divided mind, and the work shows it.

The state beyond suffering

The wise, joined to wisdom, give up the fruits born of action, are freed from the bond of birth and reach the state beyond suffering. The verse describes a person and a state. It does not set a price. If it were a price, the person would be working for the large fruit and would only have changed the object of clinging. The fuller account of how this state is entered is taken up below.

What comes after the fifth verse

The passage does not stop at the state beyond suffering. The next two verses say that when the intellect crosses the thicket of delusion, a person becomes indifferent to what has been heard and what is yet to be heard (Gita 2.52), and that when the intellect, confused by many teachings, stands firm and unshaken, the person attains yoga (Gita 2.53). So the fifth verse leads on to the steady intellect. The giving up of fruits and the steadiness of the intellect are two sides of one condition, and the second chapter goes on to describe the person who lives it. That description is the subject of the hubs that follow in the chapter.

How the argument runs

The first verse draws the line, the second gives the manner, the third gives the reason, the fourth gives the name, and the fifth shows where the road ends.

Parallels inside the Gita

Where the traditions read the passage differently

The traditions differ on two points and agree on the main one: the claim over the fruit is given up.

On what is renounced. One stream says that desire for the fruit is renounced, and nothing more is needed. Another stream says that the fruit is offered to the Lord, as in the verses that ask for every act to be offered (Gita 9.27, Gita 18.57). Both streams say that the claim goes.

On the freedom of the last verse. One stream says that freedom is the result of dropping clinging. Another says that freedom is the self's own nature, uncovered when clinging goes. Both say that it is not a payment.

Objections and replies

If the fruit is not the motive, what moves the action?

Duty and purpose move it. The verse speaks of what is prescribed (Gita 2.47), and the Gita asks for an act to be done because it ought to be done (Gita 3.9, Gita 18.9). The work has its own worth, and the pure doer acts with firmness and enthusiasm (Gita 18.26). In the fuller teaching the work is offered, and the offering is a motive of its own (Gita 3.30, Gita 9.27, Gita 18.46).

Does giving up fruit not contradict a promised state?

No. The state is described and not bought. It is the absence of the bond that clinging made, and peace follows the giving up (Gita 5.12, Gita 12.12). A person who works for the state is still working for a fruit and misses it. This is why the verse asks for wisdom first (Gita 2.49).

Does ignoring results make us careless or harmful?

No. An action begun without regard for consequences, loss, harm and one's own capacity is called dull (Gita 18.25). The pure doer weighs these and then acts (Gita 18.26). What is dropped is the claim and the fever and not the thought for consequences.

Is calling fruit-seekers "pitiable" too harsh?

It names the condition of a person who lives on things outside their hands, and it is said by a teacher to a friend (Gita 2.49). The tone is pity. The Lord does not condemn, and he gives the way out in the same sentence: seek refuge in wisdom.

Can anyone work without any desire for the fruit?

The verses do not ask for the absence of the thought of results. They ask for the absence of clinging to them. The Gita describes a person who is content with what comes and equal in success and failure (Gita 4.22), and it promises that effort on this path is never lost (Gita 2.40). The practice grows by degrees.

Does dropping the claim excuse indifference to others?

No. The result for other people is part of the duty, and not part of the personal claim that is dropped. The Lord asks Arjuna to consider the welfare of the world while acting (Gita 3.20), and says that the wise act without attachment, desiring the welfare of the world (Gita 3.25; see Acting for the World). What is given up is the "mine" over the result and not the care for those the work affects.

Why is the teaching given on a battlefield?

It is the hardest case. The action there has the heaviest consequences and the least room for dread. If the teaching holds in a place like that, it holds in ordinary work. The Lord gives the same instruction to fight with the mind on the self, free from expectation and fever (Gita 3.30).

Questions the verses raise, answered from the Gita and the tradition

How does a goal fit with dropping the fruit?

The verses give the right to action, and the action has an aim in the duty it serves (Gita 2.47). The Gita adds that the pure doer weighs consequences and capacity (Gita 18.25), acts with firmness and enthusiasm (Gita 18.26), and does the work because it ought to be done (Gita 18.9). The tradition says that the aim belongs to the action and is part of its form, while the claim over the outcome is what is dropped.

What of failure and regret?

The verses ask for evenness in success and failure (Gita 2.48). The Gita adds that effort on this path is never lost (Gita 2.40), and that one who does what is good never meets a bad end (Gita 6.40). The tradition holds that a mind which has done its part can rest in it.

What of livelihood and wages?

The right is to the action, and the Gita adds that a person without expectation, who does only what sustains life and duty, incurs no bond (Gita 4.21). The wage that comes is not refused. The mind is not tied to it. The tradition's picture of the householder who works, supports others and keeps the heart free says the same.

What happens to the good and bad deeds already done?

The fourth verse says that one with wisdom casts off both (Gita 2.50). The Gita adds that one who offers all actions is freed from the bonds of good and bad results (Gita 9.28). The tradition says that knowledge ends the stored results of past action.

How is this practised in ordinary work?

The Gita gives a graded way. If steady practice is hard, work for the Lord; if that is hard, give up the fruits; and peace follows (Gita 12.10, Gita 12.11, Gita 12.12). It also gives the offering at the heart of ordinary work (Gita 3.30, Gita 5.10). The tradition teaches an offering at the start of work and another at its close.

Is there anyone who acts like this, as a model?

Yes, and the Gita names three. The Lord says of himself that there is no duty for him in the three worlds, and nothing unobtained that he needs to obtain, and yet he engages in action (Gita 3.22). If he did not act, the worlds would perish (Gita 3.24). He also says that actions do not bind him because he has no desire for their results (Gita 4.14). Janaka and others reached perfection through action alone (Gita 3.20). And the pure doer, firm and enthusiastic and unaffected by success or failure, is described in the eighteenth chapter (Gita 18.26). The tradition looks to the teacher who gives without owning the result as the living example.

What of work whose result is a person?

The person is not a fruit to be owned. The one who cares does all that is in hand, which is the right to action (Gita 2.47). The person cared for is another of the five causes, with their own effort and their own fate (Gita 18.14). Care is given in full, and the claim that they must turn out as one wishes is what is dropped. The Gita asks the wise to act for the welfare of others without attachment (Gita 3.25). The tradition holds that a good teacher or parent gives, and then lets go.

What place do enthusiasm and joy have in work without a claim?

The verses do not ask for a grey mind. The Gita names the pure doer as one who is firm and enthusiastic (Gita 18.26), and it describes the person who is content with what comes (Gita 4.22). Enthusiasm belongs to the work, and the joy of doing it well asks nothing of a result. The tradition says that the joy of the work is the first sign that the clinging has loosened.

What is the state beyond suffering?

The verses name it as a state free from all suffering (Gita 2.51). The Gita describes the person who gives up all longing and lives without possessiveness and ego as one who reaches peace (Gita 2.71). It describes the one who has become serene as neither grieving nor desiring (Gita 18.54), and who then comes to know the Lord in truth (Gita 18.55; see Freedom Through Action). The tradition calls this the freedom of the self from the bond.

In short, the verses give the line: the right is to the work. The rest of the Gita gives the way: duty, evenness, offering and the graded way of devotion. The tradition gives the support: the two readings of what is renounced, the householder who works, and the habit of offering.

What this reading rests on

The text above rests on the site's verse data for each verse cited. Points taken from the tradition are stated as the tradition's, not as verses of the Gita.

This is the second stop on The Path of Karma Yoga. It follows Buddhi Yoga and leads to Can We Simply Stop Acting?.