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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.47
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana | mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi
Translation. Your authority (adhikāra) is over action (karman) alone;
never let it extend to its fruits (phala).
Do not become a cause of attaining action’s fruit;
let no attachment (saṅga) of yours be to non-performance (akarman).
Grammar check: 13 words pass / 0 flagged / 2 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
|---|
| karmaṇi | karman | pass |
| eva | eva | pass |
| adhikāraḥ | adhikāra | pass |
| te | tvad | pass |
| mā | mā | pass |
| phaleṣu | phala | pass |
| kadācana | kadācana | unsupported |
| mā | mā | pass |
| karma-phala-hetuḥ | karma-phala-hetu | pass |
| bhūḥ | bhū | unsupported |
| mā | mā | pass |
| te | tvad | pass |
| saṅgaḥ | saṅga | pass |
| astu | as | pass |
| akarmaṇi | akarman | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
The restriction expressed by eva applies to the domain karmaṇi: Arjuna's adhikāra is confined to action, in contrast to steadfastness in knowledge.→ “Your authority is over action alone,” with Śaṅkara's contrast with jñāna-niṣṭhā retained in the apparatus rather than inserted into the verse.
gita [1]karmaṇy evādhikāro na jñāna-niṣṭhāyāṃ te tava |
Your authority is only with respect to action, not with respect to steadfastness in knowledge—te means ‘your.’
Both occurrences of te are genitive singular, not dative: the first marks the possessor of adhikāra and the second the possessor of saṅga.→ Genitive singular, translated possessively.
gita [1]te tava
te means ‘your/of you’ (tava).
gita [5]mā te tava saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi
Let there not be your attachment to non-performance; te means tava.
In mā phaleṣu kadācana, the understood predicate is adhikāro 'stu; Śaṅkara further explains authority over fruits as thirst for the fruit of action. Kadācana means ‘at any time,’ yielding ‘never’ under mā.→ “Never let it [your authority] extend to the fruits,” while noting that Śaṅkara interprets this as excluding karma-phala-tṛṣṇā.
gita [2]tatra ca karma kurvataḥ mā phaleṣu adhikāro 'stu, karma-phala-tṛṣṇā mā bhūt kadācana kasyāṃcid apy avasthāyām ity arthaḥ |
While performing action, let there be no authority over the fruits; that is, let there never be thirst for the fruit of action in any circumstance whatsoever.
Karma-phala-hetuḥ is a genitive tatpuruṣa, ‘cause of the fruit of action,’ not a bahuvrīhi meaning merely ‘one whose motive is the fruit.’ Śaṅkara explicates it as becoming a cause of attaining the fruit and, consequently, of birth as an action-fruit.→ The genitive-tatpuruṣa interpretation, translated contextually as “a cause of attaining action’s fruit.”
gita [3]yadā karma-phale tṛṣṇā te syāt tadā karma-phala-prāpter hetuḥ syāḥ, evaṃ mā karma-phala-hetuḥ bhūḥ |
When you had thirst for the fruit of action, you would then be a cause of attaining the fruit of action; thus, do not become a karma-phala-hetu.
gita [4]yadā hi karma-phala-tṛṣṇā-prayuktaḥ karmaṇi pravartate tadā karma-phalasyaiva janmano hetur bhavet |
For when one engages in action impelled by thirst for its fruit, one would become the cause of birth itself as the fruit of action.
Bhūḥ is a second-person singular finite form of √bhū: an augmentless root aorist (Lun) licensed by prohibitive mā. It is neither the feminine nominative noun bhūḥ nor a Lot imperative.→ Kartari Lun, Madhyama Eka: “do not become.”
gita [3]hetuḥ syāḥ, evaṃ mā karma-phala-hetuḥ bhūḥ |
You would be a cause; thus do not become a cause of the fruit of action.
Akarmaṇi denotes non-performance or failure to act, and saṅgaḥ here is attachment or fondness for that non-performance.→ “Let no attachment of yours be to non-performance.”
gita [5]mā te tava saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi akaraṇe prītir mā bhūt
Let there not be your attachment to non-action; let there be no fondness for non-performance.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1karmaṇy evādhikāro na jñāna-niṣṭhāyāṃ te tava |
2tatra ca karma kurvataḥ mā phaleṣu adhikāro 'stu, karma-phala-tṛṣṇā mā bhūt kadācana kasyāṃcid apy avasthāyām ity arthaḥ |
3yadā karma-phale tṛṣṇā te syāt tadā karma-phala-prāpter hetuḥ syāḥ, evaṃ mā karma-phala-hetuḥ bhūḥ |
4yadā hi karma-phala-tṛṣṇā-prayuktaḥ karmaṇi pravartate tadā karma-phalasyaiva janmano hetur bhavet |
5yadi karma-phalaṃ neṣyate, kiṃ karmaṇā duḥkha-rūpeṇa ? iti mā te tava saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi akaraṇe prītir mā bhūt ||bhgs_2.47||
6yadi karma-phala-prayuktena na kartavyaṃ karma, kathaṃ tarhi kartavyam iti |
7ucyate -