Karmanye Vadhikaraste, the Gita Verse on Effort
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
Karmaṇy evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana
Mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo’stv akarmaṇi
“You have a right to your action alone, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruit of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.”
Bhagavad Gītā 2.47
Word by word
A shloka a child understands is a shloka they keep. Here is what each word is actually doing.
Before an exam, a match, an audition or a result. It is the verse to reach for whenever outcome anxiety is high.
- Directly addresses exam and performance anxiety
- Moves a child’s focus to what they can actually control
- The single most quoted verse of the Gita
- Its fourth line guards against the obvious misreading
Point out the last line to any child who learns this, because it prevents the misunderstanding. Krishna does not say results do not matter, and he certainly does not say to stop trying. He says: put everything into the effort, do not be driven by the score, and do not use any of this as an excuse to do nothing. For a child who freezes before tests, that is a genuinely useful sentence.
Bhagavad Gita for Kids
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Questions parents ask
You have a right to your action alone, never to its fruits. Do not act for the sake of results, and do not let that become an excuse for inaction. It is Bhagavad Gita 2.47.
Learn these next
All 28 shlokas
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