SlokasKarmanye vadhikaraste is the opening phrase of Bhagavad Gita 2.47, where Krishna tells Arjuna: your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. The verse teaches selfless action — not indifference — and explicitly warns against giving up action altogether.
What does "karmanye vadhikaraste" mean, and where does it come from?
"Karmanye vadhikaraste" is the popular transliteration of the first words of Bhagavad Gita 2.47 — karmaṇy evādhikāras te — literally "your right is to action alone." According to Swami Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the full verse continues: never to the fruits of action, and never let inaction become your attachment either.
The verse falls within chapter 2, traditionally titled Sāṅkhya Yoga (some translators, such as Swami Mukundananda, render it "Transcendental Knowledge"). Krishna speaks it to Arjuna, who has just laid down his bow on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, overwhelmed by grief at having to fight his own relatives and teachers. Arjuna is the Pandava prince to whom the whole Bhagavad Gita is addressed; Krishna is his charioteer and teacher — the speaker of every verse examined here.
Did you know? Bhagavad Gita 2.47 arrives soon after Krishna's teaching that the soul is never born and never dies (Bhagavad Gita 2.20) — the philosophical foundation is laid first, and only then does Krishna turn to practical guidance on how to act.
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 is one verse among the traditionally counted 700 that make up a classical sloka collection at this scale, and its five key Sanskrit terms recur across the rest of the chapter:
| Term (IAST) | Literal meaning | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| karma | action, deed | What you are entitled to — the doing itself |
| phala | fruit, result | What you are not entitled to control or claim |
| adhikāra | right, entitlement | The precise legal-sounding word for what belongs to you |
| saṅga | attachment, clinging | The thing the verse forbids toward both fruit and inaction |
| akarma | inaction, non-doing | What the final clause warns you not to become attached to |
What is the structure of Bhagavad Gita 2.47?
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 is a single sloka of 32 syllables, arranged in four padas of 8 syllables each — the anustubh meter used for nearly all of the Bhagavad Gita's verses. A pada is one quarter-line of a classical Sanskrit verse.
| Pada | Syllables | Sanskrit segment (IAST) | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pada 1 | 8 | karmaṇy evādhikāras te | States the entitlement: action alone, not its results |
| Pada 2 | 8 | mā phaleṣu kadācana | Rules out entitlement to the fruits, at any time |
| Pada 3 | 8 | mā karma-phala-hetur bhūḥ | Forbids treating yourself as the cause of the results |
| Pada 4 | 8 | mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi | Forbids attachment to not acting at all |
In Devanagari, the first two padas traditionally end at a single danda (।), and the verse closes with a double danda (॥) — the same punctuation convention explained in Devanagari Danda Explained. Because the four padas build a single connected argument, the verse is usually chanted as one continuous unit rather than paused pada by pada.
Did you know? Nearly all of the Bhagavad Gita's traditionally counted 700 verses are composed in the anustubh meter — with a notable exception in chapter 11's cosmic-vision (Vishwarupa) section, which shifts to the grander, 44-syllable trishtubh meter to match its overwhelming subject.
What does "karmanye vadhikaraste" mean word by word?
Every accurate karmanye vadhikaraste meaning starts from the full four-pada verse, given here in the standard three-part format — Devanagari, IAST transliteration, translation:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana | mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi ||
"Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. Never let the fruit of action be your motive, and never let yourself be attached to not acting."
The verse fuses several words through sandhi — Sanskrit's sound-joining rules that merge adjacent words into one string, covered fully in What Is Sandhi in Sanskrit?. Splitting karmaṇyevādhikāraste into its 4 separate words — karmaṇi, eva, adhikāraḥ, te — is the first step to reading the verse accurately. The table below breaks all 15 words of the verse into a single sequence:
| Word (Devanagari) | IAST | Literal meaning | Grammar note |
|---|---|---|---|
| कर्मणि | karmaṇi | in action | locative singular of karman, "action" |
| एव | eva | only, indeed | emphatic particle |
| अधिकारः | adhikāraḥ | right, entitlement | nominative singular, from adhi + kṛ, "to hold authority over" |
| ते | te | your | genitive singular of tvam, "you" (1st of 2 occurrences) |
| मा | mā | never | prohibitive particle (1st of 3 occurrences) |
| फलेषु | phaleṣu | in the fruits | locative plural of phala, "fruit, result" |
| कदाचन | kadācana | at any time | adverb; with mā, "never at any time" |
| मा | mā | never | prohibitive particle (2nd occurrence) |
| कर्मफलहेतुः | karma-phala-hetuḥ | the cause of the fruit of action | compound noun, nominative singular |
| भूः | bhūḥ | may you become | prohibitive verb form of bhū, "to be, become" |
| मा | mā | never | prohibitive particle (3rd occurrence) |
| ते | te | your | genitive singular (2nd occurrence) |
| सङ्गः | saṅgaḥ | attachment, clinging | nominative singular of saṅga |
| अस्तु | astu | let there be | third-person singular imperative of as, "to be" |
| अकर्मणि | akarmaṇi | in inaction | locative singular of akarman, "non-action" |
Did you know? The prohibitive mā ("never") appears three times in this four-line verse — once in each of the last three padas — building a triple warning against craving the fruit, claiming to cause the result, and giving up action itself.
Roots like kṛ ("to do, make," inside adhikāraḥ) and bhū ("to be, become") recur across hundreds of Sanskrit verses once you learn to spot them, a pattern explored in Sanskrit Root Words (Dhatu).
What does Bhagavad Gita 2.47 mean, layer by layer?
Traditional teachers read this verse, like most Gita slokas, at three depths at once — the literal words, their contextual application, and the philosophical claim underneath them. In the commentarial tradition following Shankara, karma yoga is treated as a purifying discipline in its own right, preparing the mind for the deeper knowledge the Gita builds toward in later chapters.
- Literal meaning — your entitlement extends only to the action itself, never to its results; do not treat yourself as the cause of what follows, and do not use that as an excuse to stop acting.
- Contextual meaning — in daily life, this separates what you control (effort, intention, method) from what you don't (outcomes); do the work fully, then release the fixation on the result.
- Philosophical meaning — this is the seed statement of Karma Yoga: action performed as discipline (yoga) rather than for personal reward frees the self from the bondage that desire-driven action creates.
Slokas Assistant presents every analyzed verse, including this one, in exactly these three layers — literal, contextual, and philosophical — as tabs, in English, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, or Malayalam.
How is Bhagavad Gita 2.47's teaching different from other views of action?
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 teaches Karma Yoga — full engagement in action, without attachment to its fruits — which is easy to confuse with related but distinct ideas about action and outcome:
| Concept | View of action | View of results | Where it's taught |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karma Yoga (this verse) | Act fully, with total engagement | Release attachment to the outcome; don't claim to be its cause | Bhagavad Gita 2.47, developed further through chapter 3 |
| Sannyasa (renunciation) | Withdraw from prescribed action itself | Not applicable — the point is to stop acting, not act without attachment | Compared with karma yoga in Bhagavad Gita chapter 5 |
| Popular "karma" (cause and effect) | Any action generates a matching future consequence | Results are fixed or deserved, often across lifetimes | Informal, everyday usage — not a specific verse |
| Fatalism / passive acceptance | Since outcomes aren't in your hands, effort is optional | Outcomes are predetermined, so don't bother acting | Not a traditional Gita teaching — a common misreading of this verse |
Key difference: Karma Yoga asks you to act fully while releasing your grip on the result; fatalism asks you to stop acting because the result is already fixed — Bhagavad Gita 2.47 explicitly rules out the second reading.
For contrast, Gayatri Mantra Meaning shows how a very different kind of sacred Sanskrit verse — a Vedic prayer in the gayatri meter — asks for something else entirely: clarity of mind, rather than a philosophy of right action. The broader classification of sloka, mantra, and stotra is covered in Sloka vs Shloka vs Mantra vs Stotra.
Where does Bhagavad Gita 2.47 appear, and how central is it?
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 sits inside the Gita's second chapter, in the middle of Krishna's first extended teaching to Arjuna (roughly verses 39–53), which introduces Karma Yoga right after Krishna establishes the soul's immortality earlier in the same chapter. The full surrounding argument is summarized in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Summary.
The Bhagavad Gita itself is traditionally situated within the Bhishma Parva, the sixth book of the Mahabharata, framed as the sage Sanjaya's narration to the blind king Dhritarashtra. It is traditionally counted at 700 slokas across 18 chapters — a scale explored fully in How Many Slokas Are in the Bhagavad Gita?.
| Where | Reference | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 2, verse 47 | Within Krishna's introduction of Karma Yoga (verses 39–53) |
| Mahabharata | Bhishma Parva | The Gita's narrative frame, recited by Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra |
| Commentarial tradition | Shankara's Bhagavad Gita Bhashya | Treats karma yoga as a purifying preliminary discipline |
| Modern anthologies | "Essential Gita verses" lists | Frequently placed near the top, e.g. 20 Most Important Bhagavad Gita Slokas |
Did you know? Because it compresses the essence of Karma Yoga into one four-line sloka, Bhagavad Gita 2.47 is one of the verses most commonly quoted outside its own chapter — it appears near the top of lists like 20 Most Important Bhagavad Gita Slokas.
How do you start learning karmanye vadhikaraste correctly?
Start with the plain translation before worrying about pronunciation — understanding what you're saying changes how it lands. A workable first method:
- Read a plain translation first, so the four clauses register as one connected argument, not a slogan.
- Follow the transliteration in your own script — IAST, Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, or Malayalam — rather than guessing at the Sanskrit.
- Split the sandhi-fused words, starting with karmaṇyevādhikāraste, into karmaṇi + eva + adhikāraḥ + te.
- Learn one pada (8 syllables) at a time, keeping all four as one continuous verse once each pada feels comfortable.
- Focus on the two words the verse turns on — adhikāraḥ ("entitlement") and phaleṣu ("in the fruits") — since the whole teaching depends on what you are, and aren't, entitled to.
- Return to this same verse daily for 7 days before moving to the next, following the structured approach in How to Memorize Slokas Fast.
General pronunciation habits are covered in How to Pronounce Sanskrit Slokas Correctly. Many students first encounter this verse while preparing for exams, where its message — put in the effort, release the anxiety about the result — resonates directly.
Common questions about karmanye vadhikaraste
Does "karmanye vadhikaraste" mean you shouldn't care about results?
No. The verse forbids attachment to the fruits of action as your motive, not care about doing the action well. Krishna's final clause is explicit that giving up action altogether is just as much an error as chasing its rewards.
Is "karma" in this verse the same as popular karma (cause and effect)?
Not quite. Here karma simply means "action" — what you do — while the popular sense of "karma" as cosmic cause-and-effect across lifetimes is a related but separately developed idea, built on the same Sanskrit root.
What is nishkama karma?
Nishkama karma names the discipline this verse describes: action performed without (nis-) desire (kāma) for its personal fruit — the practical method Karma Yoga asks a practitioner to follow.
Why does the verse warn against attachment to inaction?
Because renouncing effort out of fear of failure, or under the excuse of "detachment," is itself a form of attachment — to comfort or avoidance. The fourth clause, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi, closes that loophole directly.
Is this verse about duty, or about action in general?
The Sanskrit word is karma, "action," not a term specific to "duty." Krishna is addressing Arjuna's prescribed role (svadharma) as a warrior, so "duty" is a fair contextual reading — but not what karma itself literally names.
What is the difference between karma yoga and sannyasa (renunciation)?
Karma yoga asks you to keep acting while releasing attachment to results; sannyasa asks you to renounce prescribed action itself. Bhagavad Gita chapter 5 compares the two paths directly and treats karma yoga as the more practical route for most people.
What do people commonly get wrong about karmanye vadhikaraste?
| Common belief | What the verse actually says |
|---|---|
| The verse says "you have a right only to your duty" | The word used is karma (action in general), not a word meaning "duty" — "duty" is an interpretive gloss from Arjuna's context, not a literal translation |
| The verse is a single idea: act, don't want results | It has four clauses: act; release the fruits; don't claim to cause results; never become attached to inaction |
| "Mā karma-phala-hetur bhūḥ" means "don't care about outcomes" | It forbids treating yourself as the generative cause (hetuḥ) of results — about ego and agency, not merely emotional detachment |
| The verse teaches indifference or passivity | Its final clause, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi, explicitly forbids attachment to inaction — full engagement is demanded |
| "Adhikāra" means you shouldn't want good outcomes | It means entitlement over the fruit, not a ban on wanting good outcomes — the issue is fixation, not desire itself |
Sources
- Bhagavad Gita 2.47, Sanskrit text and word-for-word synonyms cross-checked against A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita As It Is and Swami Mukundananda's published translation, Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God.
- Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, entries adhikāra, phala, hetu, and saṅga.
- Traditional placement of the Bhagavad Gita within the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, per the standard framing narrated by Sanjaya.
- Standard Sanskrit prosody treatments of the Bhagavad Gita's predominant anustubh meter, including chapter 11's shift to trishtubh.