📿 Shloka Collection

Tyaktva Karmaphalasangam

Gita 4.20 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4 — Gyana Karma Sannyasa Yoga
त्यक्त्वा कर्मफलासङ्गं नित्यतृप्तो निराश्रयः ।
कर्मण्यभिप्रवृत्तोऽपि नैव किञ्चित्करोति सः ॥
Tyaktva karma-phalasangam nitya-tripto nirashrayah
Karmany abhipravritto'pi naiva kinchit karoti sah
त्यक्त्वा
having abandoned
कर्मफलासङ्गम्
attachment to the fruit of action
नित्यतृप्तः
always content
निराश्रयः
dependent on nothing
कर्मणि
in action
अभिप्रवृत्तः
fully engaged
अपि
even though
न एव
not at all
किञ्चित्
anything
करोति
does
सः
that person

Picture someone who has given up all claim to the harvest but still tends the garden every morning — watering, weeding, pruning — simply because the work itself is enough. That is the person Krishna describes. Having dropped attachment to results, always satisfied within, depending on nothing outside, fully engaged in action yet doing nothing at all.

The paradox is deliberate. The body works, the hands move, duties are fulfilled. But inside, there is no grasping. Wind carries clouds across the sky without holding any of them. This is the maturity of nishkama karma yoga — working without wanting.

Shloka 4.19 defined the pandit. Here Krishna describes how that pandit actually lives — active on the outside, still on the inside.

The next shloka (4.21) continues this portrait: working only with the body, keeping no possessions, incurring no fault.

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