Gita on the CommuteS1 · E1September 4, 20260:5231 plays Members only

Chapter 2, verse 47: the line everyone quotes and few understand

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Show notes

The right to act

The first episode starts with the verse printed on posters in every Indian office: karmanye vadhikaraste, you have a right to your actions, never to their fruits. Aditi reads it in Sanskrit, translates it word by word, and then separates what it says from what people use it to excuse.

What adhikara, usually translated as right, really means here
Why this is not an instruction to stop caring about results
Guest Dr Meenakshi Rao, a cardiac surgeon, on reciting it before surgery
The difference between detachment and indifference, with an example from exam season

Next week: what dharma means when two duties collide, with a retired judge.

Transcript

Namaste, and welcome to Gita on the Commute. I am Aditi Kulkarni. I studied Sanskrit for six years and taught it for seven, and the thing I heard most often was that these texts are beautiful but too hard for ordinary people. I do not believe that, and this show is my argument. One idea, one verse, 25 minutes, roughly the length of your journey to work. Today, the line you already know. Chapter 2, verse 47. You have a right to your actions, never to their fruits. It is on posters, in speeches, in wedding advice. And most people use it to mean something Krishna did not say. I will read it to you in Sanskrit, translate every word, and then a heart surgeon tells us why she says it before every operation. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.

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