सक्ताः कर्मण्यविद्वांसो यथा कुर्वन्ति भारत ।कुर्याद्विद्वांस्तथासक्तश्चिकीर्षुर्लोकसंग्रहम्॥
saktāḥ karmaṇyavidvānso yathā kurvanti bhāratakuryād vidvāns tathāsaktaś cikīrṣur loka-saṅgraham
Word by word
The verse says
The unknowing act because they are attached to what they are doing. The one who knows should act just as hard, Arjuna, but unattached, wanting to hold the world together.
In plain words
Same effort. Different footing.
Krishna is explicit that the wise person should work tathā - in the same way, to the same degree. Not more calmly. Not less.
The only difference is invisible: asaktaḥ, not holding on.
Where you've felt this · in parenting
Two fathers are helping with homework at eleven at night. From the doorway the tired one and the patient one look identical - same chair, same page, same voice. Only one of them is going to say something he regrets.
Going deeper
This verse closes a door that readers keep trying to open.
The temptation is to hear non-attachment as reduced investment - half in, keeping something back, protecting yourself from caring too much. Krishna blocks that reading directly: work yathā the attached work, as much as they do.
So the difference is not in the quantity of effort. It is in where the person doing it is standing. Full effort, no grip.
And the motive named is loka-saṅgraham cikīrṣuḥ - wishing to hold the world together. This is the second time in six verses. It has become the operative reason.
Which is worth noting for what it is not. The reason offered is not enlightenment, not merit, not purification. It is that things need holding together and you are one of the people available to do it.