Chapter 4 · Verse 14 · Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 4.14
Sanskrit
न मां कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा। इति मां योऽभिजानाति कर्मभिर्न स बध्यते।।4.14।।
Transliteration
na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti na me karma-phale spṛihā iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti karmabhir na sa badhyate
In plain words
You are not responsible for outcomes you cannot control — and you are exhausting yourself trying to be. Krishna says: your truest self is untouched by what happens, untouched by success or failure, untouched by the results you're white-knuckling toward. When you stop gripping the outcome, you stop being bound by it, and you find freedom in the middle of everything falling apart.
Word by Word
Krishna reveals here the secret that devastates the ego and liberates the soul: actions cannot touch the eternal Self, for the Self remains forever untouched, forever free. When you truly know this — not as philosophy but as living reality — you stop being the doer, and the chains of karma dissolve like morning mist.
This is the ultimate freedom: to live fully engaged in life while internally releasing the desperate grip on results that keeps you bound to the wheel of becoming. In our modern rush to control outcomes, this verse invites us to distinguish between the body-mind that acts and the witness-consciousness that remains eternally unaffected.
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Bhagavad Gita 4.14 — BG 4.14
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