Bhagavad Gita 3.22
न मे पार्थास्ति कर्तव्यं त्रिषु लोकेषु किञ्चन । नानवाप्तमवाप्तव्यं वर्त एव च कर्मणि ॥
na me pārthāsti kartavyaṃ triṣu lokeṣu kiñcana | nānavāptam avāptavyaṃ varta eva ca karmaṇi ||
Translation
O son of Pritha, there is nothing in the three worlds for me to do, nothing unattained that should be attained; yet I do engage in action.
Reflection
What would you keep doing if you knew it was not earning you anything?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Three
Krishna names himself the case. Nothing in three worlds left for him to do. Nothing unreached he should reach. And yet, varta eva ca karmaṇi, I am engaged in action. The grammar holds the tension. He has everything and is still working. The teacher is offering the student a model that closes the last exit: if even the one who needs nothing is acting, the rest of us have no remaining argument for stopping. Shankara reads this as the teaching's apex moment: the divine, taking the work seriously, is the strongest possible refusal of renunciation as virtue.