Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 18, Verse 56
सर्वकर्माण्यपि सदा कुर्वाणो मद्व्यपाश्रयः।मत्प्रसादादवाप्नोति शाश्वतं पदमव्ययम्।।
sarva-karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ
mat-prasādād avāpnoti śāśvataṁ padam avyayam
also searched as "sarva-karmany api sada kurvano mad-vyapashrayah"
Translation
Taking refuge in Me and performing all works constantly, one, by My grace, attains the eternal and immutable abode.
Vāṇi's rendering
Keep doing all your work — only do it sheltered in me. By my grace you reach the everlasting, unchanging home.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| सर्वकर्माणिsarva-karmāṇi | all actions, every kind of work |
| अपिapi | even, though (joined to the previous word as karmāṇy api) |
| सदाsadā | always, without a break |
| कुर्वाणःkurvāṇaḥ | doing, going on performing |
| मत्mat | me, in me (joined to the next word as mad-) |
| व्यपाश्रयःvyapāśrayaḥ | one who takes shelter, who leans wholly on |
| मत्mat | my |
| प्रसादात्prasādāt | by grace, by kindness freely given |
| अवाप्नोतिavāpnoti | reaches, comes to |
| शाश्वतम्śāśvatam | everlasting |
| पदम्padam | the place, the abode, the standing-ground |
| अव्ययम्avyayam | unchanging, never wearing away |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 56 mean?
It means the work stays and the burden goes. Krishna does not ask you to stop acting; he asks you to act while sheltered in him. Held that way, endless activity does not bind, and the everlasting, unchanging home is reached — not as wages earned, but as prasāda, grace freely given.
What does sarva karmanyapi sada kurvano madvyapashrayah teach?
That constancy of action and complete refuge can live in the same person. Sadā — always, without pause — you go on doing everything. Vyapāśrayaḥ — you lean the whole weight elsewhere. The hands are busy; the leaning is total. Neither one cancels the other, and together they are the path.
If grace gives the result, why should I keep working at all?
Because grace does not arrive in an empty life. Krishna gives no exemption from the day's duties — he changes who is bearing them. Stopping is not surrender; it is only stopping. Surrender is doing the same work with the weight set down. Keep the hands moving and let the shelter hold.
What is the eternal abode Krishna speaks of here?
Śāśvataṁ padam avyayam — a standing-place that never shifts and never wears out. Not a location you travel to after death, but the ground under someone who has stopped depending on outcomes. You may be there already this evening, in the middle of the dishes, and not have noticed.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Not renunciation. Krishna has spent a chapter separating true tyāga from cowardly withdrawal, and here he says the plainest form of it: keep working. All of it — the calls, the accounts, the tending. Nothing is subtracted from your day. What changes is where you stand while you do it. Sheltered in him, the same actions stop accumulating; they pass through you instead of sticking. The arriving is grace — prasāda, given. You do not earn the everlasting home by good conduct. You do the work, take the shelter, and are carried there. Tonight's unfinished list is not in the way. It is the road.