Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Karma

कर्म · karma

action; work; a deed and what follows from it

Literally 'action'. In the Gita it means anything a person does, especially the work their place in life requires. Every action leaves a result that sooner or later returns to the doer, and that return is what binds. Krishna's answer is not to stop acting, which no one can do, but to act without clinging to the result.

Appears in

Bhagavad Gita 2.47 · Bhagavad Gita 3.5 · Bhagavad Gita 3.8 · Bhagavad Gita 4.17 · Bhagavad Gita 4.18