Karma Yoga

You must act. That isn't a choice. The question Karma yoga answers is how to act without becoming enslaved to what the action produces.

All 43 verses below.

Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla. Commentary AI-drafted, human-reviewed. Reviewed June 2026. Methodology →

Verses

• 3.1Mixed guidance deepens paralysis; clarity must come before action.
• 3.2Confusion ends when the mind asks for one clear direction.
• 3.3Different natures are steadied by different disciplines.
• 3.4Freedom is not found by escaping action, but by changing your relation to it.
• 3.5Inaction is an illusion; nature is already moving you.
• 3.6Outer restraint means nothing if the mind still feeds desire.
• 3.7Self-mastery makes action noble, not the outer task alone.
• 3.8Right action is unavoidable; even survival depends on it.
• 3.9Work becomes bondage when it is done for yourself.
• 3.10Life flourishes when duty becomes mutual support.
• 3.11Your duty nourishes the whole, and the whole nourishes you back.
• 3.12What is received must be offered back, or it becomes theft.
• 3.13What is offered purifies; what is hoarded for the self corrupts.
• 3.14Action sustains the cycle that makes life possible.
• 3.15Right action is not random; it rests in a deeper, sustaining order.
• 3.16A life detached from duty empties itself from within.
• 3.17Fulfillment in the true self ends the need for striving.
• 3.18Freedom ends the need to profit from action.
• 3.19Freedom comes when action is done without grasping at its reward.
• 3.20Perfection comes through action that serves more than the self.
• 3.21The highest standard is not spoken; it is copied.
• 3.22Even the fulfilled keep working, because action need not come from lack.
• 3.23Careless withdrawal by the highest would unravel everyone below.
• 3.24Even the highest must act to prevent disorder.
• 3.25Wisdom keeps acting, but never for personal gain.
• 3.26Wisdom should steady people, not shake their footing.
• 3.27The doer is imagined; action belongs to nature's forces.
• 3.28Seeing action as nature's movement ends attachment.
• 3.29Clarity should guide confusion, not crush it.
• 3.30Action becomes free when you stop claiming its results.
• 3.31Trusting the teaching frees action from its binding force.
• 3.32Rejecting clear guidance leaves the mind stranded.
• 3.33Nature drives behavior; force alone cannot overrule it.
• 3.34Freedom begins when attraction and aversion stop steering action.
• 3.35Imperfect right action is safer than perfect imitation.
• 3.36Compulsion has a cause, and Arjuna wants to name it.
• 3.37Desire is not harmless; it mutates into the force that ruins judgment.
• 3.38Clear seeing is not destroyed; it is simply covered.
• 3.39Desire does not just tempt; it hides wisdom itself.
• 3.40Desire conquers by hijacking the mind's own instruments.
• 3.41Sense-control comes before clear action.
• 3.42Desire sits above reason, so mastery must begin earlier.
• 3.43Desire loses power when the higher mind takes command.