What does the Bhagavad Gita say about karma?
The Gita says: do the work, drop the anxiety about the result. Krishna's line is 'karmanyevadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana' (2.47) — you have a right to action, never to its fruit. The reason is plain — a result rests on many things, and worrying about it tires the mind today. Yet the Gita also refuses inaction — 'ma te sango'stvakarmani', no attachment to not-acting either.
The Gita's teaching on karma begins on a battlefield, not in a quiet ashram — remember that and the rest opens up. In the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata, Arjuna wants to walk away from the work in front of him. Krishna does not let him walk away; he changes the way Arjuna works. This is karma yoga, and the third chapter is titled exactly that.
2.47 — the most quoted and most misread verse
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
Meaning: you have a right to action, never to its fruits; do not treat yourself as the cause of the fruit, and do not be attached to inaction. The real weight sits in that second line, which most people drop. "Don't worry about results" does not mean sitting idle — in the same breath the Gita refuses inaction too.
Karma, vikarma and akarma
In the fourth chapter Krishna says: कर्मणो ह्यपि बोद्धव्यं बोद्धव्यं च विकर्मणः। अकर्मणश्च बोद्धव्यं गहना कर्मणो गतिः॥ (4.17) — one must understand action, and forbidden action, and inaction, because the way of action runs deep. In the common reading, karma is your prescribed duty, vikarma is forbidden or wrong action, and akarma is the absence of action. Shankaracharya glosses akarma as the absence of action, and in the very next verse (4.18) Krishna speaks of seeing inaction in action and action in inaction — working, but without carrying the burden of being the doer.
Dropping the work is not an option
The third chapter is blunt: नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः। शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः॥ (3.8) — do your prescribed work; action is better than inaction, and without action even the body cannot be maintained. The method comes in 2.48: योगस्थः कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय। सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योः समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते॥ — stay even in success and failure; that evenness is what is called yoga.
What people usually get wrong
- Letting go of attachment to the fruit is not letting go of the aim. The arrow still goes at the target; the grip loosens on the outcome, not on the work.
- Karma yoga is not only for renunciates. The whole dialogue is with a householder-warrior who has a job to do.
- The idea of karma is not the Gita's invention — it is older, and appears in the Upanishads. What the Gita adds is the remedy: acting without craving the fruit.