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Chapter 4 · Transcendental Knowledge · 42 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps

1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.

Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›

Duty & actionChapter 4 · Transcendental Knowledge

4.13 4.15

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 4.14

Action without fruitive bondage

Īśvara · God

न मां कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा ।

इति मां योऽभिजानाति कर्मभिर्न स बध्यते ॥ १४ ॥

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti

na me karma-phale spṛhā

iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti

karmabhir na sa badhyate

Translation

There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

The Lord Is Beyond Karma

1
The Lord is unaffected by work and does not desire its rewards. One who understands this is also free from work’s binding reactions.
2
Prabhupāda explains that the Lord provides facilities for action, but living beings are responsible for their own acts and their results.
3
Seek to understand the Lord’s spiritual nature. One who truly knows Him is liberated and firmly fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Key points from the purport

Since Krishna is free from all fruitive attachments:

He has no personal interest in Varnasrama dharma

He creates it only to help the living entity fulfill their desires and get purified

Connected verses · 2

Texts 4.13 & 4.14

In the next verse, Krishna will further explain how He is the non-doer, or how He acts but does not act and the value of thoroughly understanding these subtle truths

Texts 4.14 & 4.15

As will be mentioned in the next verse, when the jiva understands these facts about Krishna and applies this transcendental knowledge to his own work and becomes a servant of Krishna, he also becomes aloof from the material whirl of action and reaction.