18.66 Let go of every duty Krishna speaks
सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज
अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः
sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣhayiṣhyāmi mā śhuchaḥ
Let go of every duty and take refuge in me alone. I will free you from all wrongdoing. Do not grieve.
Explanation
Let go of every duty and take refuge in me alone.
The verse the tradition has argued over for a thousand years. I will free you from all wrongdoing. Do not grieve.
Eighteen chapters of duty, and then sarva-dharmān parityajya — abandoning all of them. And the last two words answer the first two of chapter 2.
Going further
Word by word
- sarva-dharmān
- all varieties of dharmas
- parityajya
- abandoning
- mām
- unto me
- ekam
- only
- śharaṇam
- take refuge
- vraja
- take
- aham
- I
- tvām
- you
- sarva
- all
- pāpebhyaḥ
- from sinful reactions
- mokṣhayiṣhyāmi
- shall liberate
- mā
- do not
- śhuchaḥ
- fear
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Let go of every duty and take refuge in me alone. I will free you from all wrongdoing. Do not grieve.
The verse the tradition calls the charama śhloka, the final word. Whole schools have been built on it, and the reason is the first clause: sarva-dharmān parityajya — abandoning all dharmas, including, on the plainest reading, everything the preceding seventeen chapters told him to do.
Keep the last two words. Mā śhuchaḥ: do not grieve. It is the same instruction Krishna gave at 2.11, when Arjuna was on the floor of the chariot. The book ends its teaching where it began, having earned the sentence in between.