The vocabulary · लोकसङ्ग्रह
The holding-together of the world
Acting for the sake of the world’s order rather than one’s own account.
Why should I act at all if I want nothing from it?
Because the world holds together partly by what people see done. Lokasangraha is the Gita’s answer to the obvious objection: if a man wants nothing from his work, why work. Krishna replies by pointing at himself. He has nothing left to gain and nothing left to attain, and he works anyway (3.22), because if he stopped, people would follow him into stopping and the worlds would fall apart (3.23–24). The wise should act as hard as the attached do, wanting only the world’s holding-together (3.25).
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · 2 verses use लोकसङ्ग्रह
In the text
लोकसङ्ग्रह
lokasaṅgraha
A verse is counted when its Sanskrit contains the word, compounds included. That is a checkable fact and a floor, not a total — the Gita teaches the idea in verses that never say it.
The third chapter opens with the objection, and Arjuna makes it himself. If you consider understanding better than action, why do you push me into this terrible work (3.1). The chapter is Krishna’s answer, and it has several parts. Nobody can remain actionless even for a moment (3.5). Action is better than inaction, and without it the body cannot be maintained (3.8). Then the part that goes further than necessity: Janaka and others reached perfection through action alone, and you too should act, keeping lokasangraha in view (3.20).
The mechanism is named in the next verse and it is uncomfortable. Whatever a great man does, other people do the same; whatever standard he sets by his own conduct, the world follows it (3.21). This is a claim about imitation, which means the obligation binds a person to the degree that others take them as a measure. The Gita states it flatly and does not qualify it, and it is worth noticing that this makes conduct a public fact whether or not the person doing it intends an audience.
Then the argument is put in its strongest possible form, because Krishna makes it about himself. There is nothing in the three worlds that he must do and nothing unattained that he needs to attain, and still he remains engaged in action (3.22). If he did not, people everywhere would follow the path he set (3.23), the worlds would fall apart, and he would be the cause of the confusion (3.24). The one being with no self-interested reason to work is given as the example of why to work.
The chapter closes the loop at 3.25. As the ignorant act with attachment to their work, so should the wise act without attachment, wanting only lokasangraha. Read carefully, the verse does not ask for less work than the attached man does. It asks for the same work, at the same pitch, under different ownership. That is the whole of the Gita’s answer to the question of why a person who wants nothing should still get up in the morning.
What it does not mean
Lokasangraha means social service — charitable work done for the good of society.
Charitable work can be lokasangraha, but the term is wider and stranger than that. The mechanism the Gita names is imitation: whatever a person of standing does, others do, and whatever measure he sets by his conduct, the world follows (3.21). So a set of accounts kept straight, a queue joined at its end, a job done properly when nobody is checking — these hold the world together in the sense meant. The verses tie it to doing one’s own work well (3.20, 3.25), not to taking on extra work of a charitable kind.
In the Gita’s own words
The verses this rests on.
The Sanskrit and both translations are the text. The note under each verse is the Trust’s reason for pointing at it — you may disagree with the note and still trust the verse.
Bhagavad Gita 3.20Shri Bhagavan
कर्मणैव हि संसिद्धिमास्थिता जनकादयः ।
लोकसङ्ग्रहमेवापि सम्पश्यन्कर्तुमर्हसि ॥Janaka and others reached perfection through action alone. You too should act, keeping lokasangraha, the holding together of the world, in view.
Where the word enters the text. Janaka and others reached perfection through action, and Arjuna is told to act with lokasangraha in view.
Bhagavad Gita 3.21Shri Bhagavan
यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः ।
स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते ॥Whatever a great man does, other people do the same. Whatever standard he sets by his own conduct, the world follows it.
The mechanism: imitation. What a person of standing does, others do; the measure he sets by his conduct is the one the world follows.
Bhagavad Gita 3.22Shri Bhagavan
न मे पार्थास्ति कर्तव्यं त्रिषु लोकेषु किञ्चन ।
नानवाप्तमवाप्तव्यं वर्त एव च कर्मणि ॥There is nothing in the three worlds that I must do, Partha, nothing unattained that I need to attain. And still I remain engaged in action.
Krishna’s own case, and the strongest form of the argument: nothing left for him to do or to gain, and he works regardless.
Bhagavad Gita 3.23–24Shri Bhagavan
यदि ह्यहं न वर्तेयं जातु कर्मण्यतन्द्रितः ।
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः ॥उत्सीदेयुरिमे लोका न कुर्यां कर्म चेदहम् ।
सङ्करस्य च कर्ता स्यामुपहन्यामिमाः प्रजाः ॥For if I did not remain engaged in action, tireless as I am, then people everywhere would follow the path I set, Partha. If I did not act, these worlds would fall apart. I would be the cause of confusion and would destroy these people.
The consequence he names if he stopped: people would follow, the worlds would fall apart, and he would be the cause of the confusion.
Bhagavad Gita 3.25Shri Bhagavan
सक्ताः कर्मण्यविद्वांसो यथा कुर्वन्ति भारत ।
कुर्याद्विद्वांस्तथासक्तश्चिकीर्षुर्लोकसङ्ग्रहम् ॥As the ignorant act with attachment to their work, Bharata, so should the wise act without attachment, wanting only lokasangraha, the holding together of the world.
The comparison that defines the practice: the same energy the attached bring to their work, without the attachment, for the world’s sake.
Bhagavad Gita 3.19Shri Bhagavan
तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर ।
असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः ॥So do the work that must be done, always, without attachment. Acting without attachment, a person reaches what is highest.
The instruction lokasangraha is attached to. Act without clinging, always, and it is by that acting that a person reaches what is highest.
Bhagavad Gita 3.8Shri Bhagavan
नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः ।
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः ॥Do the work that is laid down for you, for action is better than inaction. Without action you could not even keep your own body going.
The floor beneath the argument: action is better than inaction, and the body itself cannot be maintained without it.
In practice
What it looks like when someone does it.
A clerk in a tehsil office decides not to take the small payment that everyone takes. He gains nothing by it; the file moves at the same speed either way and nobody will hear of it. 3.21 is the reason the Gita would give him. The measure a man sets by his own conduct is followed, and the first people to follow it are the two juniors who watch him work every day and are still deciding what an office is like.
A mason mixes the ratio properly on a slab nobody will ever inspect. He will not see the building fall, and he will not be blamed if it does. Lokasangraha is the Gita’s name for the reason to do it anyway, and the reason is not sentimental. It is that a world in which work is done properly when unobserved is a different world from one in which it is not, and every unobserved job is a vote.
The same verses cut the other way, and that is the uncomfortable part. A person whom others watch — a teacher, a doctor, an elder in a family, anyone with a name — does not get to treat a private lapse as private. The Gita does not soften this. It says the world follows what such a person does, and it says it about Krishna first, which leaves no room to argue that the standard applies to someone else.
Words that travel with it
Common questions
About the holding-together of the world.
What does lokasangraha mean?
The holding-together of the world. It is the reason the Gita gives for acting when a person has no personal stake in the outcome. Krishna tells Arjuna to act with it in view (3.20) and then defines the practice at 3.25: the same energy the attached bring to their work, without the attachment, for the world’s sake rather than one’s own.
Is lokasangraha the same as karma yoga?
They belong together but answer different questions. Karma yoga is the manner of acting: fully, without leaning on the fruit. Lokasangraha is one of the reasons the Gita gives for acting at all. 3.25 puts both in a single verse — act without attachment, wanting lokasangraha.
Why does Krishna say he has to act?
He does not say he has to. He says there is nothing in the three worlds he must do and nothing left for him to attain, and that he acts anyway (3.22). The reason he gives is the effect of his example: if he stopped, people would follow, the worlds would fall apart, and he would be the cause of the confusion (3.23–24).
Does the Gita ask for social service?
Not in those words, and it is worth being careful here. The verses on lokasangraha are about doing one’s own work well and in view of its effect on others, not about adding charitable activity to it. The Gita praises giving elsewhere, but that is a separate teaching and should not be read back into these verses.