Śabda No. 3
Everyone says it.
“He who sees inaction in action and also action in inaction is wise among men.”
We use karma to mean payback. In the Gītā, karma is action, and the wise are those who see inaction in action and action in inaction.
Arjuna asked his. Samvāda answers yours with the Gītā's own verses.
Samvāda is software, an AI companion tuned to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is not a person. It answers from the verse and shows you which one, and it never pretends to be Kṛṣṇa.
कर्मण्यकर्म यः पश्येदकर्मणि च कर्म यः।
स बुद्धिमान् मनुष्येषु स युक्तः कृत्स्नकर्मकृत्।।
karmaṇyakarma yaḥ paśyed akarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ sa buddhimān manuṣyeṣu sa yuktaḥ kṛtsna-karma-kṛt
He who sees inaction in action and also action in inaction is wise among men. He is fit for release and has accomplished all actions.
4.18 is verse 180 of 700, and verse 18 of 42 in chapter 4.
Karma (akarma, vikarma and naiṣkarmya not counted), in any form, comes 3 times in 4.18.
Karma (akarma, vikarma and naiṣkarmya not counted), in any form, appears in 114 verses of the 700, first at 1.15 and last at 18.71.
Counted by Vāṇi on the 700-verse text at getvani.app/gita.
Karma is the word at the centre of chapter 4, and 4.18 is one of its sharpest uses. It says that a person who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among people, is fit for release, and has accomplished all actions. The verse before, 4.17, prepares it: there is something to be understood about action, about wrong action and about inaction, and the way of action is hard to see. 4.19 says who the wise call a sage: one whose every undertaking is free from desire and wishful planning, whose actions are burned up in the fire of knowledge. Karma in the Gītā means action, not payback. The test is whether you can tell what is really happening when you act, and when you hold still. See chapter 4 and what the Gītā says about karma.