Yoga is excellence in action without bondage.
Krishna speaks to Arjuna
बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते ।तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् ॥
buddhi-yukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛta-duṣkṛte tasmād yogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam
Use this verse when you want to turn work into spiritual practice.
Meaning
One endowed with wisdom gives up both good and bad results in this life. Therefore devote yourself to yoga. Yoga is skill in action.
Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).
In plain words
Yoga means skillful, wise, balanced action.
Word-by-word meaning
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Explanation
This famous verse expands yoga into excellence of action. Skill is not merely technical efficiency; it is action done with clarity, ethics, timing, balance, and freedom from ego. Karma Yoga is not careless detachment. It is the highest quality of work, performed without bondage.
Read the traditional commentary
This verse contains one of the most celebrated and compact definitions in all of spiritual literature: 'yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam' — yoga is skill in action. This deceptively simple phrase carries enormous depth. Krishna is not speaking of technical proficiency or strategic cleverness. The 'skill' referred to is the art of performing action without generating karmic bondage — acting with full engagement yet without attachment to results.
The person established in buddhi yoga transcends both punya (merit) and papa (demerit) in this very lifetime. This is a radical statement: virtue accumulated through righteous deeds can still bind the soul if accompanied by the expectation of heavenly rewards. The wise one transcends both the compulsion to avoid bad outcomes and the craving for good ones, and thus is freed from the entire karmic cycle.
The word 'kauśalam' also carries the connotation of well-being and auspiciousness — suggesting that this skill in action is not merely efficient but inherently wholesome. To act with this skill means to bring one's entire awareness, dedication, and clarity to the present moment, without the distorting lenses of past disappointments or future fantasies. This is the Gita's blueprint for liberated living.
In daily life
Do your work with skill, ethics, presence, and detachment.
A surgeon, designer, teacher, or founder practices yoga when they work skillfully without ego-obsession.
Try this today
Pick one task and improve its quality with calm attention.
My work becomes yoga through skill and detachment.Reflect
How can I make today’s work more skillful and less ego-driven?
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Quick check
What does ‘buddhi-yuktaḥ’ mean in this verse?
Krishna on karma, in other chapters
- Verse 18.12Clinging to results binds you to their consequences; releasing them sets you free.
- Verse 8.19Driven by past karma, beings are swept helplessly through endless cycles; true freedom means stepping beyond the wheel entirely.
- Verse 3.19Do what must be done, fully and without clinging to results — selfless action itself can lead you to the highest realization.
- Verse 4.10Release attachment, fear, and anger; let knowledge purify you — and union with the divine becomes not rare but attainable.
Swipe left for 2.51 · Freedom comes when action is not chained to fruits.
Questions about Bhagavad Gita 2.50
Who says Bhagavad Gita 2.50, and to whom?
Krishna speaks to Arjuna in verse 2.50, in Chapter 2, Sankhya Yoga (Sankhya Yoga).
What does Bhagavad Gita 2.50 mean?
One endowed with wisdom gives up both good and bad results in this life. Therefore devote yourself to yoga. Yoga is skill in action. (Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).)
What is the lesson of Bhagavad Gita 2.50 for daily life?
Do your work with skill, ethics, presence, and detachment. A surgeon, designer, teacher, or founder practices yoga when they work skillfully without ego-obsession.
What do the Sanskrit words in Bhagavad Gita 2.50 mean?
buddhi-yuktaḥ — one endowed with intelligence, one fixed in buddhi yoga; jahāti — abandons, gives up; iha — here, in this life; ubhe — both; sukṛta-duṣkṛte — good deeds and bad deeds, merit and demerit.
Where does verse 2.50 come in the Bhagavad Gita?
It is verse 50 of 72 in Chapter 2, Sankhya Yoga. The next verse is 2.51.