🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 5.11

Chapter 5 · कर्मसंन्यासयोग · Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga · "The Yoga of Action-Renunciation" · Verse 11 of 29

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🪷 English Translations

Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.

Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition

5.11 The sage performs his action dispassionately, using his body, mind and intellect, and even his senses, always as a means of purification.

Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society

5.11 Yogis, having abandoned attachment, perform actions only by the body, mind, intellect, and even by the senses, for the purification of the self.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school

5.11 Since tyaktva, by giving up sangam, attachment with regard to results; yoginah, the yogis, men of action; kurvanti, undertake; karma, work; kevalaih, merely- this word is to be construed with each of the words, body etc., so as to deny the idea of ownership with regard to all actions-; kayena, through the body; manasa, through the mind; buddhya, through the intellect; and api, even; indriyaih, through the organs, which are devoid of the idea of ownership, which are unassociated with ownership thus: 'I act only for God, and not for my gain'; atmasudhaye, for the purification of themselves, i.e., for the purification of the heart, therefore you have competence only for that. So you undertake action alone. And also since,

Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school

5.11 Renouncing attachment to heaven etc., the Yogins perform actions accomplishable by the body, the mind and the intellect for the purification of themselves, i.e., for annulling the bonds of his previous Karma which have afected the self and which involve the self in Samsara.

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly

5.11. Having given up attachment, the men of Yoga perform action, just with the body, with the mind, with intellect and also with sense-organs, for attaining the Self.

🪷 Hindi Translation · हिन्दी अनुवाद

For the Hindi-aware seer · Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's translation · a high-readability modern Hindi rendering · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur tradition. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page for the 102-year-living Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī Mahātmā.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī tradition · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur · highest modern Hindi reading

।।5.11।। कर्मयोगी आसक्तिका त्याग करके केवल (ममतारहित) इन्द्रियाँ-शरीर-मन-बुद्धि के द्वारा केवल अन्तःकरणकी शुद्धिके लिये ही कर्म करते हैं।

🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices

The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.

Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors

5.11 कायेन by the body? मनसा by the mind? बुद्ध्या by the intellect? केवलैः only? इन्द्रियैः by the senses? अपि also? योगिनः Yogis? कर्म action? कुर्वन्ति perform? सङ्गम् attachment? त्यक्त्वा having abandoned? आत्मशुद्धये for the purification of the self. Commentary Yogis here means Karma Yogis who are devoted to the path of action? who are free from egoism and selfishness? who work for the purification of their hearts without the least attachment to the fruits or results of their actions? and who dedicate all actions to the Lord as their offerings.Kevalam only by (free from egoism and selfishness) applies to the body? mind? intellect and the senses.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)

Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship

5.7-11 Yogayuktah etc. upto atma-siddhaye. He, whose (by whom) Self is [realised to be] the Self of all beings, is not stained, eventhough he performs all [sorts of] actions. For, he has undertaken neither what is enjoined nor what is prohibited. Hence, even while performing actions such as seeing and the like, he bears in mind, -i.e., he resolves with [all] firmness of observation, - that 'If the sense-organs like eyes etc., function on their respective objects, what does it matter for me ? Indeed one is not stained by what another does'. This act is nothing but dedicating one's actions to the Brahman. In this regard the characteristic mark is his detachment. Due to that he is not stained. Because they do not have attachment, the men of Yoga perform actions only with their body etc., that are freed from attachment and do not depend on each other.

Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching

।।5.11।। कर्मयोगी का प्रयत्न यह होता है कि अपने स्वरूप में ही रहकर स्वयं के अन्तर्बाह्य घटित हो रही घटनाओं को उनके साथ तादात्म्य किये बिना केवल साक्षी भाव से देखे। कुछ काल तक इसका अभ्यास करने पर उसे यह स्पष्टतया ज्ञात होगा कि समस्त कर्म उपाधियों के द्वारा किये जाते हैं और साक्षी के साथ उनका कोई सम्बन्ध नहीं होता। तथापि उसको इस बात का ध्यान रखना चाहिये कि यह साक्षित्व अथवा साक्षी स्वयं पारमार्थिक सत्य नहीं है वरन् बुद्धि की खिड़की में से झांकता हुआ परम सत्य यह साक्षी है। हमारा अनुभव है कि हम स्वयं को कार्यरत देखते हैं तब हमें इस देखने वाले साक्षी का भी भान होता है। शुद्ध चैतन्यस्वरूप आत्मतत्त्व वह है जो इस उपर्युक्त द्रष्टा को भी प्रकाशित करता है यह उपनिषदों की घोषणा है।यदि परम सत्य साक्षित्व से भी परे है तो कर्मयोगी को इस साक्षीभाव का अभ्यास क्यों करना चाहिये इसका उत्तर है आत्मविशुद्धये अर्थात् अन्तकरण की शुद्धि के लिए। साक्षीभाव से कर्म करने पर स्वाभाविक ही अहंकार का त्याग होकर पूर्व संचित वासनाओं का क्षय हो जायेगा। जितनी अधिक मात्रा में वासना निवृत्ति होगी उतना ही शुद्ध और स्थिर अन्तकरण होगा जिसमें परमात्मा की अनुभूति स्पष्ट रूप से होगी।निम्नलिखित कारण से भी कर्मयोगी अनासक्त भाव से कर्म करता है

🪷 Hindi Vyākhyā · हिन्दी व्याख्या

Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · one of the great modern Hindi vyākhyās of the Gītā · direct, pure, deeply Vedāntic · the modern Sanātana-jāgaraṇa. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page · 1904-2005 · Corner 1 Mādhurya operational anchor · whose 6-lakṣaṇa-śaraṇāgati IS Constitutional Principle 24.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · Hindi vyākhyā · the modern bilingual anchor

5.11।। व्याख्या--'योगिनः' यहाँ 'योगिनः'--पद कर्मयोगीके लिये आया है। जो योगी भगवदर्पणबुद्धिसे कर्म करते हैं, वे भक्तियोगी कहलाते हैं। परन्तु जो योगी केवल संसारकी सेवा के लिये निष्कामभावपूर्वक कर्म करते हैं, वे कर्मयोगी कहलाते हैं। कर्मयोगी अपने कहलानेवाले शरीर, इन्द्रियाँ, मन आदिसे कर्म करते हुए भी उन्हें अपना नहीं मानता, प्रत्युत संसारका ही मानता है। कारण कि शरीरादिकी संसारके साथ एकता है।

🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā

This is verse 11 of 29 in Chapter 5 · Karma-Sannyāsa-Yoga (The Yoga of Action-Renunciation)
Chapter theme: Sama-darśana · the body as nine-gated city · seer beyond doer
Ṣaṭka grouping: TVAM-Ṣaṭka (BG 1-6 · the jīva)
Chapter hub: /karma-sannyasa
⭐ Mahābhārata anchor: this verse is also MBh 6.27.11 (Bhīṣma-Parva · the BG in its full narrative home)

Bhagavad-Gītā Detail Source-Anchor Spine

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📚 Cite this verse · Academic citation formats

APA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. (n.d.). Bhagavad-Gītā 5.11. Vidhyāmitra. Retrieved 2026-07-29, from https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/5/11

Chicago: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 5.11." Vidhyāmitra. Accessed 2026-07-29. https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/5/11.

MLA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 5.11." Vidhyāmitra, 2026, https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/5/11.

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🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷

सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)