Answered from scripture
What does the Bhagavad Gita say about anxiety?
In short
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that anxiety comes from clinging to outcomes you cannot control. In verse 2.47, Krishna says your right is to your effort alone, never to its fruits. Do your work sincerely and release the result — the mind steadies when it stops gripping what is not its to decide.
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The verse
“karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana”
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 · Chapter 2, Sankhya YogaYou have a right to your actions alone, never to their fruits. Let not the fruits be your motive, nor attachment draw you to inaction.
Spoken by Krishna to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra — the Gita sits within the Mahabharata's Bhishma Parva — as Arjuna, overcome with grief and unwilling to fight his own kin, laid down his bow before the war.
In depth
Anxiety, in the Gita's reading, is the mind reaching for a future it cannot hold. You can control your effort, your attention, your integrity in this moment — you cannot control how things land. Fixing the mind on the fruit is what creates the churn.
The remedy is not indifference. Krishna asks Arjuna to act fully and well, but to let go of ownership of the result. This is often called nishkama karma — action without craving for reward. Paradoxically, releasing the outcome usually improves it, because the mind is calm and clear rather than clenched.
Related questions
Which Gita verse is best for anxiety?
Bhagavad Gita 2.47 — 'you have a right to your actions alone, never to their fruits.' It directly addresses anxiety about outcomes you cannot control.
Does the Gita say not to care about results?
No. It asks you to act sincerely and well, but to release attachment to the result — to give your best effort without letting the outcome own your peace.
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