Hand the action to the Lord; keep doing the work in full.
It sounds like permission to step back. It asks the opposite: fight, in full, but let the longing, the ownership, and the fever that usually drive the deed fall away first.
Hand every action over to me, your mind resting on the Self rather than on outcomes. Free of longing, free of any claim of 'mine,' and free of the fever of grief, fight.
The reading read whole, as one unhurried piece
Where it stands
Krishna has just told Arjuna how the wise act differently from the ignorant, without unsettling anyone's mind in the process. Now he turns that teaching directly onto Arjuna's own situation and gives him a single working instruction: offer the action, empty the heart of its three clingings, and fight.
The teaching
Hand every action over to the Lord. This is not a call to stop acting. The word Krishna uses for surrender does not mean abandonment; it means consigning, offering up. You keep doing the work, and you change whose work it is. Set your mind on the Self rather than on how things will turn out, and the commentators give this a concrete shape: act as a servant acts for a king, moved by a ruler within rather than by your own private stake in the outcome. Then let go of three things by name. Let go of the hope for a fruit, whatever prize or gain you had been quietly counting on. Let go of the sense of 'mine' that has settled over your body, your kin, your possessions. And let go of the fever, the burning grief and anxiety that comes from wondering how you will fare. With these three released, fight. Arjuna is a warrior, and battle is the shape his own duty takes; this word stands in for whatever action anyone's own station actually requires. None of this is presented as a reason to work less carefully. It is a reason to work without the inner heat that usually accompanies the working.
The doubt that rises
If the deed is handed over and even the sense of being its doer is questioned, what is left of the one who acts? Is this a real transformation of how a person meets their work, or only a way of talking oneself out of responsibility for it?
Where the paths divide
Read as agency reframed, not erased.
Krishna is named here in full: Vasudeva, the supreme Lord, all-knowing, the Self of all beings. Offer action into that Self, and the mind that rests there holds a specific, disciplined thought: I am the doer, yet I act for the Lord, as a servant acts for a master. Doership is not denied outright, only relocated. And after all the analysis of desirelessness and surrendered fruit, the verse's final word is not withdrawal but the plain, settled fact that action is still to be done.
Read as the self as God's own body, moved from within.
Everything here rests on the inner ruler who has entered all beings and moves them as a body is moved by its indwelling self. To offer action to the Lord is to hold it as done by him alone, for the single purpose of his own worship, through a self that is his own instrument. The fever is named with unusual precision: the anxiety of wondering how one will fare, born of a beginningless weight of sin, dissolved by the simple trust that the very Lord one worships will grant the freedom.
Read as correcting a mistaken attribution, not surrendering a true possession.
What is on file here is a single, dense paragraph, so this reading stays close to exactly what it says. The renunciation asked for corrects an error rather than giving up something truly one's own: actions were wrongly laid on the living being to begin with, and to cast them onto the Lord is to release them back to their actual doer. Renunciation is the thought, the Lord does it. Freedom from mine is the thought, I do not do it.
Read from a brief surviving fragment, honestly kept brief here too.
What survives is short: settle the stark thought, I am not the doer at all, the supreme Lord who governs all is the only doer, and then, out of a wish to bless the world, simply carry out the task that here takes the form of war. A fuller Kashmir Shaiva picture, action as the Lord's own vibration appearing as the world, is a reasonable extension of this fragment's logic, but it is flagged here as an extension, not a claim the surviving comment itself makes.
Read from Arjuna's own confessed lack of knowledge.
This comment, too, survives as a single short paragraph. It opens from where Arjuna actually stands: even a knower of truth must act, but Arjuna does not yet know it, so he is told simply to act, and to act seeing himself as moved by the inner Ruler, looking on the deed as the means to a fruit that belongs to the Lord alone. The picture of a servant under a ruler is present here, but only in seed.
Read as a scope distinction between the universal principle and its local case.
This single dense paragraph draws a precise line: offering to the Lord and freedom from desire hold for all action, for any seeker of freedom whatsoever. Freedom from the sense of mine and from fever, though, are pinned specifically to the war that is this chapter's own topic, Arjuna's particular case. The general instruction and its immediate application are kept carefully distinct rather than blurred together.
All six readings agree on the outward shape: offer the deed, release the three clingings, then fight. They part, sometimes sharply, on what becomes of the doer underneath. Shankara keeps a reframed 'I am the doer.' Madhva corrects that very thought away: 'the Lord does it, I do not.' Two brief, thinly preserved comments, from the Shaiva and the Bhakti traditions here, do not settle the question further; what is available leaves real room for either reading, and this page does not force a verdict where the sources themselves are quiet.
A question to carry
When you finally hand the deed over and stop calling it yours, what in you is still the one doing the work?
Where this teaching travels
Verses that sit near this one, each going its own way; follow whichever calls you.
Take up the task your own life has actually set before you. Hand it to the one who moves all things from within. Then do it, free of longing, free of ownership, free of fever.
Each school is voiced from the commentators named above. Their full words, every translation, and where the schools agree and differ wait in the reading desk just below. Open the commentary desk.
Krishna has just distinguished the wise from the ignorant in how they act; now he turns that teaching directly onto Arjuna, giving him the one working instruction that will carry him into battle.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
Do not stop acting; hand the action over, changing whose it is rather than whether it happens at all.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 3 others’ words
The verse's real center is its opening word, 'mayi,' into me. Krishna does not ask Arjuna to stop acting; the word 'sannyasya' here does not mean abandonment but a handing-over, a consigning. Every commentator on record treats this offering as the single move that changes what the deed does to the one who performs it.
Let the mind rest on the Self, not on the deed's outcome, taking the shape of a servant moved by a ruler within.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, BhaktiŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Śrīdhara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 2 others’ words
'Mind on the Self,' adhyatma-cetasa, is unpacked by nearly every voice through the same image: act as a servant acts for a king, doing the king's work by the king's command, moved by a ruler within rather than by one's own private motive. The mind rests on the Self, not on outer objects or their results.
Release three clingings by name: the hope for a fruit, the sense of 'mine,' and the fever that is grief's inner heat.
Across Advaita, ViśiṣṭādvaitaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
Three inner clingings are stripped away by name: nirashih, free of expectation of a fruit; nirmama, free of the sense of 'mine' over body, kin, and possessions; and vigata-jvarah, free of the fever that is grief and sorrow's heat. The commentators agree these three describe the calm in which the offered action is done.
The command lands as 'fight' because battle is Arjuna's own appointed duty; war stands in for whatever your own duty asks.
Across AdvaitaŚaṅkara · MadhusūdanaIn Śaṅkara and Madhusūdana’s words
The command lands as 'fight' because Arjuna is a warrior and battle is the shape his own duty takes; war stands in for whatever action anyone's station actually requires. Both Shankara and Madhusudana note the deeper reason: Arjuna has confessed he is not yet a knower, so he is given a way of acting that purifies him rather than one final teaching that would ask him to renounce action outright.
Surrender is not a lighter way of acting. Shankara's own closing word after all this analysis is simply that action is to be done.
Across Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, DvaitaŚaṅkara · Rāmānuja · MadhvaIn Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and 1 others’ words
Surrendering fruit and 'mine'-ness is nowhere read as license to work half-heartedly. Every reading on file keeps the deed fully intact; what is removed is the anxious motive underneath it, never the doing itself. Shankara's closing line makes this explicit: his settled view, after all this analysis, is simply that action is to be done.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is. Below is where they differ.
Where they differthe divergence
Viśiṣṭādvaita, in their fuller words
Ramanuja grounds the whole instruction in the antaryamin, the inner ruler who has entered all beings and moves them as a body is moved by its indwelling self. Action is cast upon the Lord as done by him alone, for the single purpose of his own worship; the fever is named precisely as the anxiety 'how shall I fare,' born of accumulated sin, dissolved by trust that the worshipped Lord will himself grant freedom.
Dvaita, in their fuller words
In the single dense paragraph on file, Madhva reads the renunciation as correcting a mistaken attribution rather than giving up something truly one's own: cast onto the Lord the actions wrongly laid on the living being. Renunciation is the thought 'the Lord does it'; freedom from 'mine' is the thought 'I do not do it.' The source is terse, and this reading stays close to exactly what it states.
Bhakti, in their fuller words
Sridhara's comment, also a single short paragraph, opens from Arjuna's own confessed lack of knowledge: because he does not yet know the truth, he is told simply to act, and to act this way, seeing himself as moved by the inner Ruler and looking on the deed as the means to a fruit that is the Lord's own. The servant-and-ruler picture is present here only in seed.
A modern reading, in their fuller words
Madhusudana's dense single paragraph draws a scope distinction worth preserving exactly: offering to the Lord and freedom from desire hold for all action by any seeker of freedom, while freedom from 'mine'-ness and from grief are pinned specifically to the war at hand, Arjuna's particular case. The universal instruction and its local application are kept carefully distinct.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
For a second sitting
Carry this with youwhat stays
Try this while you work today: before you begin, silently hand the task over, thinking, this is not mine to keep, only mine to do. When the mind reaches for how it will turn out, or for whether you will get credit for it, notice the reaching, and let it settle back onto the task itself, the way a servant's attention settles back onto the work in front of him rather than on his own standing.
So take up the work your own life has set before you, hand it over to the one who moves all things from within, and do it free of longing, of ownership, and of fever.
Read deeper
Everything a full study holds, folded below.
Word by word
All the commentary, woven together
The commentary, woven together
machine-assisted draft, pending review
Convergence
he verse's real center is its opening word, 'mayi,' into me. Krishna does not ask Arjuna to stop acting; the word 'sannyasya' here does not mean abandonment but a handing-over, a consigning. Every commentator on record treats this offering as the single move that changes what the deed does to the one who performs it.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
'Mind on the Self,' adhyatma-cetasa, is unpacked by nearly every voice through the same image: act as a servant acts for a king, doing the king's work by the king's command, moved by a ruler within rather than by one's own private motive. The mind rests on the Self, not on outer objects or their results.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Three inner clingings are stripped away by name: nirashih, free of expectation of a fruit; nirmama, free of the sense of 'mine' over body, kin, and possessions; and vigata-jvarah, free of the fever that is grief and sorrow's heat. The commentators agree these three describe the calm in which the offered action is done.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The command lands as 'fight' because Arjuna is a warrior and battle is the shape his own duty takes; war stands in for whatever action anyone's station actually requires. Both Shankara and Madhusudana note the deeper reason: Arjuna has confessed he is not yet a knower, so he is given a way of acting that purifies him rather than one final teaching that would ask him to renounce action outright.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Surrendering fruit and 'mine'-ness is nowhere read as license to work half-heartedly. Every reading on file keeps the deed fully intact; what is removed is the anxious motive underneath it, never the doing itself. Shankara's closing line makes this explicit: his settled view, after all this analysis, is simply that action is to be done.
Śaṅkarācārya · Rāmānujācārya · Madhvācārya
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
Shankara keeps the doer's agency but relocates it: the actor holds the discerning thought 'I am the doer, yet I act for the Lord, as a servant acts for a master.' Doership is not denied outright, only reframed as servant-agency, offered into Vasudeva, the all-knowing supreme Self of all beings. The verse's final word, for Shankara, is not renunciation of the deed but its settled performance.
Śaṅkarācārya
Viśiṣṭādvaita
Ramanuja grounds the whole instruction in the antaryamin, the inner ruler who has entered all beings and moves them as a body is moved by its indwelling self. Action is cast upon the Lord as done by him alone, for the single purpose of his own worship; the fever is named precisely as the anxiety 'how shall I fare,' born of accumulated sin, dissolved by trust that the worshipped Lord will himself grant freedom.
Rāmānujācārya
Dvaita
In the single dense paragraph on file, Madhva reads the renunciation as correcting a mistaken attribution rather than giving up something truly one's own: cast onto the Lord the actions wrongly laid on the living being. Renunciation is the thought 'the Lord does it'; freedom from 'mine' is the thought 'I do not do it.' The source is terse, and this reading stays close to exactly what it states.
Madhvācārya
Kashmir Śaiva
The surviving fragment is brief: settle firmly the thought 'I am not the doer at all, the supreme Lord alone is the doer of all,' and then, out of a wish to benefit the world, simply carry out the task that here takes the form of war. On a Kashmir Shaiva reading more broadly, one would extend this toward recognizing action as the self-luminous Lord's own vibration appearing as the world, though the verse's own surviving comment does not develop that further.
Ācārya Abhinavagupta
Bhakti
Sridhara's comment, also a single short paragraph, opens from Arjuna's own confessed lack of knowledge: because he does not yet know the truth, he is told simply to act, and to act this way, seeing himself as moved by the inner Ruler and looking on the deed as the means to a fruit that is the Lord's own. The servant-and-ruler picture is present here only in seed.
Śrīdhara Svāmī
Modern
Madhusudana's dense single paragraph draws a scope distinction worth preserving exactly: offering to the Lord and freedom from desire hold for all action by any seeker of freedom, while freedom from 'mine'-ness and from grief are pinned specifically to the war at hand, Arjuna's particular case. The universal instruction and its local application are kept carefully distinct.
Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
A Seeker Asks
If I surrender doership and fruit, and even my sense of being the one who acts, what is left of me as an agent, and isn't this just a way of dodging responsibility?
The verse does not ask you to do less. It says 'fight,' the full and concrete duty in front of you, and both Shankara and Madhusudana are explicit that this way of acting is what fits an unready seeker for the work, not an excuse to withdraw from it. What changes is the motive underneath the deed, not the deed's completeness.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
The dominant image is the servant who acts for the king: fully engaged in the task, but moved by the master's command rather than private gain. Ramanuja and Sridhara both develop this: you remain the one who shows up and does the work, only no longer for the prize or out of anxiety over how you will fare.
Rāmānujācārya · Śrīdhara Svāmī
On what is finally left of the agent, the readings genuinely differ rather than converging. Shankara keeps a servant's 'I am the doer'; Madhva reads the correct thought as 'the Lord does it, I do not.' Either way, responsibility is not dropped but relocated: the deed is still done with full care, now as an offering rather than a private transaction.
Śaṅkarācārya · Madhvācārya
Contemplation
Try this while you work today: before you begin, silently hand the task over, thinking, this is not mine to keep, only mine to do. When the mind reaches for how it will turn out, or for whether you will get credit for it, notice the reaching, and let it settle back onto the task itself, the way a servant's attention settles back onto the work in front of him rather than on his own standing.
Sit with this · sonnet-5-authored
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, open a tradition in the doorways below, or add a voice by name above.
Also hear this verse, tradition by tradition.