Nishkama Karma
niṣkāma karma · निष्काम कर्म
What does nishkama karma mean?
Niṣkāma karma means action done without desire for its fruit. The phrase itself never appears in the Bhagavad Gita; it is a later way of naming the idea. The idea is the Gita's own: Krishna tells Arjuna to do the work that must be done, let go of clinging to its result, and still not stop acting.
Niṣkāma is niṣ (without) plus kāma (desire); karma is action. Neither niṣkāma nor the pair niṣkāma karma occurs in any verse of the Bhagavad Gita. The text says the same thing in other words: phala (fruit, result), saṅga (attachment) and kāma (desire), usually with a verb of letting go such as tyaktvā (having given up), and its own privative adjectives nirāśīḥ, without expectation (3.30, 4.21, 6.10), and niḥspṛhaḥ, free of longing (2.71, 6.18). Gita 3.30 puts it most directly: nirāśīr nirmamo bhūtvā yudhyasva, fight without expectation and without "mine". The adjective niṣkāma does occur in the Ashtavakra Gita, seven times in its chapter 18, six of them describing the sage, but the phrase niṣkāma karma is not found there either.
The root is 2.47: "Your business is with action alone; not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive (to action). Let not your attachment be (fixed) on inaction." The next verse adds saṅgaṃ tyaktvā, giving up attachment, and evenness in success and failure. From the start the teaching has two edges: no claim on the result, and no retreat into doing nothing.
Chapters 4 and 5 describe the person who acts this way. In 4.19 their undertakings are kāmasaṅkalpavarjitāḥ, "free from desires and fancies". In 4.20, having given up attachment to the fruit, such a person "does nothing at all, though he engages in action." In 5.12 the two cases stand side by side: the yukta gives up the fruit and reaches peace; the ayukta, acting from desire (kāmakāreṇa) and attached to the fruit, is bound.
Chapter 6 opens by redefining the renouncer: "He who, regardless of the fruit of actions, performs the actions which ought to be performed, is the devotee and renouncer; not he who discards the (sacred) fires, nor he who performs no acts." In 18.2 Krishna reports that the wise distinguish giving up desire-driven acts from giving up the fruit of all acts; his own verdict in 18.6 is that even sacrifice, gift and penance must be done, abandoning attachment and fruit. Gita 18.11 says no embodied being can give up action entirely, so the true relinquisher is the one who gives up the fruit. In 18.23 action done by one aphalaprepsu, not wishing for the fruit, is sāttvika; in 18.24 action done by one kāmepsu, wanting what it brings, is rājasa.
Where it appears
- Bhagavad Gita 2.47Krishna forbids Arjuna to become one whose motive for acting is the fruit of action, while also forbidding attachment to inaction.
- Bhagavad Gita 4.19The wise person's undertakings are free of kāma (desire) and saṅkalpa (fixed intent), yet they are still undertakings.
- Bhagavad Gita 4.20Having dropped attachment to the fruit of action, a person fully engaged in action is said to do nothing at all.
- Bhagavad Gita 4.21Free of expectation, doing only the action the body needs, such a person incurs no fault: one of the Gita's closest wordings for acting without desire.
- Bhagavad Gita 5.12Acting through desire is what binds the undisciplined one, set against the disciplined one who gives up the fruit (karmaphalaṃ tyaktvā) and finds peace.
- Bhagavad Gita 6.1Not depending on the fruit of action while doing the work that ought to be done is what makes someone both renouncer and yogī.
- Bhagavad Gita 18.2The wise are reported to call giving up the fruit of all actions tyāga, distinct from setting aside acts done from desire (kāmyānāṃ karmaṇāṃ); Krishna gives his own verdict in 18.6.
- Ashtavakra Gita 18.62Ashtavakra Gita, not the Bhagavad Gita: the one verse in either text where niṣkāma and karman stand together, the sage free of desire in all undertakings, moving like a child, unstained even while action is being done.
Questions
Is the phrase "nishkama karma" in the Bhagavad Gita?
No. Neither niṣkāma nor niṣkāma karma occurs in its verses. The idea is carried by phrases such as karmaphalaṃ tyaktvā, having given up the fruit of action (5.12), and anāśritaḥ karmaphalaṃ, not depending on the fruit of action (6.1).
Does nishkama karma mean giving up action?
No. Gita 6.1 says the true renouncer is not the one who performs no acts, and 18.11 says no embodied being can give up action entirely. What is given up is the claim on the fruit, not the work.
Does it mean not caring how the work turns out?
The verses ask you not to make the result your motive (2.47) and to stay even in success and failure (2.48). The work itself is still to be done, and done because it ought to be done (18.9).
How does it relate to karma yoga?
The Gita's own word is karmayoga, the discipline of action, and 3.7 pairs it with asaktaḥ, unattached; 3.19 says it plainly: asaktaḥ satataṃ kāryaṃ karma samācara, always do the work that must be done, without attachment. Niṣkāma karma is a later name for the attitude that discipline asks for.
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