Bhagavad Gita 5.10 · BG 5.10
Chapter 5Verse 10
Karma Sanyasa Yoga
ब्रह्मण्याधाय कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा करोति यः। लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा॥
brahmaṇy ādhāya karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ, lipyate na sa pāpena padma-patram ivāmbhasā
Translation
One who acts offering all actions to the divine, letting go of attachment, is untouched by wrong, as a lotus leaf is untouched by water.
Be in the work without being stained by how it turns out. Like a lotus leaf in water.
What does this mean?
You can be fully involved in your work and still not get stained by it. The move is to offer the results outward instead of clutching them, so success doesn't inflate you and failure doesn't crush you. The lotus leaf sits in the water without getting wet. Same idea.
In simple words
Krishna says the person who does their work as an offering, without clinging to the results, stays unstained by it, the way a lotus leaf sits in water without getting wet. You can be fully involved in something and still not be marked by how it turns out.
The deeper idea
The lotus leaf is a stock image in Indian thought for being in something without being soaked by it. The mechanism the verse gives is dedicating the action outward, offering it rather than gripping the outcome for yourself. When the result isn't personal property, success doesn't puff you up and failure doesn't stain you. The point isn't to care less about the work. It's to change what you're doing with the result.
How it applies to life
Some people finish a project and are visibly changed by how it landed, a good review makes them insufferable for a week, a bad one wounds them for a month. Others do work just as invested and let the outcome roll off. The difference is whether they held the result as a verdict on themselves. Treating the work as something you offer rather than something you own is what keeps the water from soaking in.