यस्य नाहंकृतो भावो बुद्धिर्यस्य न लिप्यते ।हत्वापि स इमाँल्लोकान्न हन्ति न निबध्यते ॥
yasya nāhaṃkṛto bhāvo buddhiryasya na lipyate |hatvāpi sa imām̐llokānna hanti na nibadhyate ||
One who has no sense of being the doer, and whose understanding is not tainted, does not kill even though he slays these people, and is not bound.
Explanation
Krishna continues answering Arjuna's fear of acting in war. The previous verse criticized seeing the self alone as the doer; here he describes someone free of the ego-sense of authorship (ahaṅkṛta bhāva) and unstained by attachment to results. Such a person is not bound by karma (action and its consequences), even in an act like battle. Traditions differ on emphasis: Advaita reads this as knowing the Self is not the doer, while devotional readings stress acting as an instrument of God.