Bhagavad Gita 2.47 is Chapter 2, Verse 47, in Sankhya Yoga (The Eternal Soul). Below are the Sanskrit text, a transliteration, a plain-English translation and an explanation.
karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi
"You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never act for the sake of reward, nor should you be attached to inaction."
What This Means:
This is the most famous verse in the Gita. Krishna says: Focus on doing your best work, not on what you'll get from it. When we obsess over results, promotions, praise, money, we get anxious and make poor decisions. But this doesn't mean be lazy. Do your work fully, just release attachment to outcomes.
Going Deeper:
This verse introduces 'Nishkama Karma', selfless action. The ego wants credit and reward. By releasing attachment to fruits, we free ourselves from the emotional rollercoaster of success and failure, and act from a place of clarity rather than craving. Note that Krishna also warns against 'akarman' (inaction), detachment isn't passivity.
How To Apply This:
Before starting any task, tell yourself: 'I will do my absolute best, and then let go of what happens.' Whether it's a job interview, exam, or difficult conversation, prepare fully, execute with presence, then release. This reduces anxiety and paradoxically often leads to better results because you're not paralyzed by fear of failure.
Where this verse sits
Verse 47 arrives in the middle of a turn. From 2.11 to 2.30 Krishna has argued from the nature of the self, from 2.31 to 2.38 from duty, and from 2.39 he begins to describe buddhi-yoga, the discipline of intelligence applied to action, which the rest of the Gita will call karma yoga. Verses 42 to 46 have just criticised those who perform Vedic rites for the sake of heaven. Verse 47 states the alternative in four clauses, and verse 48 names it: samatvam yoga uchyate, evenness is called yoga.
What the words say
Adhikara is a right or entitlement. Your entitlement, Krishna says, is to the action only, never (kadachana) to its fruits. The third clause is the one that stops the verse becoming fatalism: do not become one whose motive (hetu) is the fruit of action. Planning for results is not forbidden; being driven by them is. The fourth clause, 'let there be no attachment to inaction', forbids the opposite escape. Shankara reads the verse as addressed to a person not yet ready for the path of knowledge, who must purify the mind through action done without craving. Ramanuja stresses the offering of action to the Lord as what makes it fruitless in the technical sense. Tilak and Gandhi, in the modern period, both made it the charter of an active life.
A common misreading
The line is often shortened to 'do not care about results', which the Sanskrit does not say. The verse forbids two things, acting for the sake of reward and refusing to act, and permits everything between them, including caring intensely about doing a thing well. The next verse supplies the test: to act established in yoga, giving up attachment, equal in success and failure. Equal, not indifferent. A surgeon who works with full attention and does not fall apart at a bad outcome is nearer the verse than one who has stopped minding.
Key Sanskrit Terms: