By the scripture 'sacrifice is Viṣṇu' (Taittirīya Saṃhitā 1.7.4), sacrifice is the Lord; action done for His sake is action for the sake of sacrifice. Apart from such action, by other action, this world, the doer of action eligible for it, is bound, has action for its bondage; but not when the action is for the sake of sacrifice. Therefore, O son of Kuntī, perform action for that purpose, for the sake of sacrifice, freed of attachment, free of attachment to the fruit of action. And here is a further reason why the eligible person should do action.

When action other than the gaining of wealth and the rest, which is subordinate to the scriptural action of sacrifice and the like, is done as subordinate to one's own purpose, this world becomes bound by action. Therefore do you carry out the gaining of wealth and the rest for the sake of sacrifice and the like; carry it out freed of the attachment that takes it as a means to your own purpose. When action is thus done with attachment given up, for the sake of sacrifice and the like, the supreme Person, worshipped by the actions of sacrifice and the rest, cuts off this man's impression of action, set going from beginningless time, and grants him the unagitated beholding of the self. The Lord states that those settled in the means to all human goals must keep up the body with what is left over from sacrifice, and states the fault of those who keep up the body with what is not left over from sacrifice.

Since the tradition holds action to be binding, 'the creature is bound by action' (Mahabharata 12.241.7), Krishna says, with 'for the sake of sacrifice'. 'Whose bondage is action' describes the world so bound. 'Sacrifice' is Vishnu; action done for the sake of sacrifice, free of attachment, is not binding; that is the sense. This follows from the qualifying phrase 'one whose attachment is gone', from the scripture 'he who desires desires' (Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.2), from the verse to come 'the unwelcome, the welcome' (18.12), from 'these actions too' (18.6), and from 'therefore let him not be one who sacrifices for objects' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.5.2); for even when general and particular statements stand on a level, the particular qualification is what remains in force.