किं कर्म किमकर्मेति कवयोऽप्यत्र मोहिताः।तत्ते कर्म प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेऽशुभात्॥
kiṃ karma kim akarmeti kavayo ’pyatra mohitāḥtat te karma pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ’śubhāt
Word by word
The verse says
Even the wise are confused about what counts as acting and what counts as not acting. I will tell you what action is, and knowing it will free you from harm.
In plain words
Krishna admits the question is hard.
Kavayaḥ api atra mohitāḥ — even the poets, the wise, are confused here.
That is an unusual thing for a teacher to say before explaining something. He is telling you the difficulty is real before he addresses it.
Where you've felt this · in study
You ask a simple question and the person who knows most pauses longest. That pause is the most accurate thing anyone says about it all day.
Going deeper
The admission at the centre of this verse is worth registering, because texts like this one usually project certainty.
Kavi means poet and seer both — those who see and say. Krishna says even they get confused about where action ends and inaction begins.
And he is right that it is difficult. Chapter 3 has already shown why: you cannot stop acting, sitting still is a choice with consequences, and the person restraining his hands may be in full motion inside.
So the ordinary categories have already failed. What follows over the next few verses is not a refinement of them. It is a replacement.
Aśubhāt — from what is inauspicious, from harm. The promise is practical rather than metaphysical. Getting this right is what keeps you out of trouble, which is the question Arjuna asked at 3.36.