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What the Gītā says about purpose

You already know what your work is. That is the Gītā's quiet claim, and it is harder to hear than any instruction about God or the soul. Krishna does not hand Arjuna a purpose from outside. He points at the one already there — born of his nature, visible in what he cannot stop doing, confirmed by the fact that another person's duty, even done beautifully, feels like wearing the wrong skin. These verses do not ask you to discover your purpose the way you discover a continent. They ask you to stop pretending you have not already found it. The work that is yours will not leave you alone. Do it. Do it sheltered in something larger than the result. That is where purpose stops being a question and becomes a practice.

Verses

2.47
Do the work. The result was never yours to carry.
Do the work — the result was never yours to carry; the foundational statement on right action
3.35
Your own dharma, done imperfectly, beats another's done well. Better to die in your own path — another's invites dread.
Your own duty done imperfectly beats another's done well — purpose is personal, not borrowed
3.42
The senses are strong; the mind is above them; above the mind, understanding; above understanding — the self.
Senses, mind, understanding, self — the ladder that shows where purpose sits, above all of them
4.8
To guard the good, to destroy the wicked, to set dharma firm again — I am born age after age.
Krishna's own purpose stated: to guard the good, end cruelty, restore dharma, age after age
5.10
Set your work in the eternal, act without clinging — sin slides off you like water off a lotus leaf.
Set your work in the eternal and act without clinging — purpose freed from the need to succeed
7.5
But that is my lower nature. My higher nature is the very life in beings — it holds this world up.
Beyond the lower nature lies the higher — the life-force holding the world up
7.10
Know me as the ancient seed of all that lives — the intelligence of the intelligent, the splendour of the splendid.
Krishna is the ancient seed of all that lives — purpose traced to its origin
16.5
The divine inheritance frees; the dark one binds. Do not worry — you were born to the divine.
Do not worry — you were born to the divine inheritance; your nature already carries direction
18.45
Devoted to their own work, each person can reach perfection. Hear how such devotion finds it.
Devoted to their own work, each person can reach perfection — purpose as the path itself
18.47
Your own dharma, even done roughly, beats another's done well. Work true to your nature carries no sin.
Your own dharma, even done roughly, carries no sin — the argument returned full circle
18.56
Keep doing all your work — only do it sheltered in me. By my grace you reach the everlasting, unchanging home.
Keep doing all your work, sheltered in Krishna — by grace, you reach the everlasting home