Chapter 2 · Knowledge of the Self
Bhagavad Gita 2.47
Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits.
Shri Bhagavan
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana / mā karmaphalaheturbhūrmā te saṅgo’stvakarmaṇi
Your right is to the action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruit be your reason for acting, and do not be attached to inaction either.
हिंदी · तुम्हारा अधिकार केवल कर्म में है, उसके फलों में कभी नहीं। फल को कर्म का कारण मत बनाओ, और अकर्म में भी आसक्त मत हो।
What it means
Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits.
Do not let the reward be the reason you act — and do not let the fear of losing it push you into doing nothing. Work sincerely; leave the outcome.
This is the Trust’s own reading, written for this site. The verse above it is the text.
Where this verse stands
Buddhi and disciplined action
Chapter 22.39–53
The teaching turns toward yoga of disciplined intelligence, action and freedom from fixation on fruit.
This verse belongs to the middle development of the movement.
Action without ownership of fruit
The verse restricts entitlement: act, do not claim the fruit as possession, do not imagine yourself the sole cause, and do not escape into inaction.
Read deeper · Read with 2.48–50, 3.19, 3.27–30, 5.10 and 18.9–17.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · The Gita for Life
Verses that share its vocabulary
Near it in the text’s own words.
- 2.48Do your work standing in yoga, Dhananjaya, letting attachment go, the same whether it succeeds or fails. That evenness is what yoga means.
- 3.7But the one who controls the senses with the mind, Arjuna, and begins karma yoga with the organs of action, unattached, stands far above him.
- 3.9Work done for the sake of yajna does not bind; all other work keeps this world in bondage. So do your work for that purpose, Kaunteya, free of attachment.
- 3.19So do the work that must be done, always, without attachment. Acting without attachment, a person reaches what is highest.
- 3.25As 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.
- 3.26The wise man should not unsettle the minds of the ignorant who are attached to their work. Acting with steadiness himself, he should let them enjoy all their duties.
Chosen by shared uncommon vocabulary, weighted so that a rare word counts for far more than a common one. A reading aid, not a claim that these verses mean the same thing.
Common questions
What does Bhagavad Gita 2.47 mean?
Your right is to action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the reward be the reason you act — and do not let the fear of losing it push you into doing nothing. Work sincerely; leave the outcome.
Who speaks Bhagavad Gita 2.47?
Shri Bhagavan. The speaker is taken from the text’s own उवाच line as transcribed, not inferred from the verse number.