Bhagavad Gita 2.50 · BG 2.50
Chapter 2Verse 50
Sankhya Yoga
बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते। तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम्॥
buddhi-yukto jahātīha ubhe sukṛta-duṣkṛte, tasmād yogāya yujyasva yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam
Translation
One settled in evenness of mind lets go, in this life, of both good and bad deeds. So devote yourself to yoga. Yoga is skill in action.
Skill in action is doing the work without being ruled by how it turns out.
What does this mean?
Skill here isn't about doing the task faster or better than everyone else. It's the ability to work without being jerked around by how it turns out. When your calm doesn't depend on the result, you can give the work your full attention instead of splitting it with anxiety about the score.
In simple words
Krishna says the person with an even mind sets down both the credit and the blame while still alive, and tells Arjuna to practice yoga, which he defines here as skill in action. The skill isn't speed or polish. It's working without being jerked around by how it turns out.
The deeper idea
'Yoga is skill in action' is one of the Gita's most quoted phrases, and the skill it means is specific. It's not technical excellence. It's the ability to act without your inner state being controlled by the result. When your calm doesn't depend on the outcome, your full attention is available for the work itself, instead of being split with anxiety about the score. Letting go of good and bad deeds is part of the same move: not carrying the ledger.
How it applies to life
Watch someone skilled do something under pressure, a surgeon, a musician, a good teacher handling a hard room. Part of what you're seeing is technical, but part of it is that they're not fighting the situation or bracing against failure. Their attention is fully on what's in front of them. That composure is trainable, and the Gita treats it as the real definition of being good at something.