श्रीमद्भगवद्गीताShrimad Bhagavad Gita 📖 Read as a flipbook

Bhagavad Gita · Karma YogaChapter 3, Shloka 19 (3.19)

Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्

तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर
असक्तो ह्याचरन् कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः
॥ 3.19 ॥

tasmādasaktaḥ satataṃ kāryaṃ karma samācara
asakto hyācaran karma paramāpnoti pūruṣaḥ

Translation

"Therefore, free from attachment, always perform well the action that is your duty; for by acting without attachment a person attains the supreme (goal)."

Interpretation

"Asaktaḥ" twice. The verse says it twice — asaktaḥ. The emphasis is not on action but on action free from attachment.

"Kāryam karma". That which ought to be done — the duty of one's role; not action done at whim.

"Param" — what is it?

  • Shankaracharya: paraṃ mokṣam … sattva-śuddhi-dvāreṇa — liberation, by way of purification of the inner being (that is, action → purification → knowledge → liberation). And the action is īśvarārtham — for Ishvara.
  • Acharya Ramanuja: karma-yogena eva paraṃ āpnoti ātmānaṃ prāpnoti — through karma-yoga itself one attains the supreme, that is, the self. Together with vakṣyamāṇa-akartṛtvānusandhāna — the contemplation, to be explained later, that "I am not the (real) doer" (3.27–3.30). And yāvad-ātma-prāpti — until the self is attained.

AI-assisted draft translation — under review.

📖 Read as a flipbook ✉ Suggest a correction