7 Bhagavad Gita Shlokas That Help You Stop Blaming Yourself for Everything
Riya Kumari | Jul 25, 2025, 05:00 IST
( Image credit : Freepik )
Highlight of the story: Let me guess. You made a mistake. Again. And now you're spiraling, replaying every scene of your life. You missed a deadline, said something mildly stupid at dinner, forgot your best friend’s dog’s birthday, and now you’re convinced you’re the root cause of all global suffering. Don’t worry. I’ve been there.
Some people hurt others and sleep just fine. You? You hurt by accident and it keeps you up for days. You replay the moment again and again. What you said, how you looked, how they reacted. You analyze every micro-expression like it’s forensic evidence. Maybe you cried in a meeting and now feel “unprofessional.” Maybe you snapped at someone you love and now think you’re a bad person. Or maybe something broke, an expectation, a relationship, a version of yourself and the only person you blamed was you. But here’s the part no one tells you: Blaming yourself for everything is not nobility. It’s not accountability. It’s a survival response. We learn early that guilt is safer than anger. That if you take the fall, people will stay. That if you carry the burden, no one else has to. And somewhere along the way, that became your identity. But Krishna, perhaps one of the clearest mirrors in all of ancient thought, says something radically different: You are not meant to carry what was never yours. The Bhagavad Gita isn’t about escaping the world. It’s about facing it with clarity. And some of its most overlooked wisdom is not about gods or war, but about how to stop turning your pain inward.
1. “You have the right to your work, but not to the results of it.” (2.47)
We often blame ourselves when our efforts don’t translate. The job interview we bombed. The partner who left. The apology that didn’t fix it. We think: If only I had done better. But Krishna says: Your job is to act, not to control the outcome. Results are shared karma, not just yours. You did what you could. Let that be enough. You don’t need to replay the scene 50 times to earn forgiveness. You already gave your best in real time.
2. “One must elevate oneself by one's own mind, not degrade oneself.” (6.5)
Here’s the cycle: You mess up. You feel bad. So you punish yourself, mentally, emotionally, sometimes even physically. You degrade your own worth because you think it’s the “right” thing to do. But Krishna doesn’t honor self-punishment. He asks you to become your own inner ally. Not because you're perfect, but because you're the only person who can truly walk yourself out of the dark. Self-respect isn’t a reward for success. It’s the starting point for change.
3. “The wise do not grieve for the living or the dead.” (2.11)
This isn’t a cold dismissal of grief. It’s a recognition of excessive emotional entanglement. Sometimes, you're carrying guilt not because of what you did, but because someone else is hurting, and you think you should have prevented it. You couldn’t. You were never meant to. Grief is natural. But the kind of grief that turns into self-hate, that insists you should have saved them, that’s not wisdom. That’s ego disguised as guilt. And Krishna calls it out.
4. “Even the worst sinner becomes righteous when they turn inward with devotion.” (9.30)
You believe your guilt makes you a better person. But Krishna flips it, it’s not guilt that purifies. It’s awareness. You can’t heal by marinating in shame. You heal by turning inward, seeing clearly, and shifting your path. You are not defined by your lowest moment. You are defined by your next one. This shloka isn’t soft spirituality, it’s radical mercy. And it says: You don’t need to stay guilty to prove you’ve changed.
5. “The mind is restless and hard to control... but it can be mastered.” (6.35)
Overthinking. Spiraling. Obsessing over “what ifs.” Sound familiar? This shloka doesn’t gaslight your anxiety. It validates it. Krishna tells Arjuna: Yes, the mind is restless. And you can train it, not by force, but by returning to center over and over again. It’s okay if your first reaction is guilt. But you don’t have to believe it every time. Mastery is not about never falling, it’s about knowing when to return.
6. “He who neither rejoices nor hates, neither grieves nor desires, has transcended duality.” (14.22-25)
This is what happens when we grow: We stop measuring ourselves by emotional extremes. Krishna teaches that true maturity is equanimity. Not indifference, but inner steadiness. If you blame yourself for every mood, every mistake, every relational glitch, you’re still caught in duality. Letting go isn’t selfish. It’s sacred.
7. “When righteousness declines... I manifest Myself.” (4.7)
You’re not alone in your unraveling. Even when things fall apart, even when you feel like you’ve failed everything, you are not abandoned. Krishna shows up when the internal dharma collapses. When you’re lost, when you’ve blamed yourself too long, when you can’t tell the difference between guilt and growth. He comes as clarity. As grace. As the reminder that you were never meant to hold it all alone.
If You Take Away One Thing:
Self-blame is not responsibility. It’s what happens when you confuse control with care. You can love deeply, take accountability, feel remorse and still not carry the burden of every broken thing. The Gita doesn’t teach you to walk away from your mistakes. It teaches you to walk through them without turning against yourself.
So let this be the last time you say: “It’s all my fault.”
Say instead: “I will learn, but I will not abandon myself.”
That’s what Krishna would want. And deep down, so do you.
1. “You have the right to your work, but not to the results of it.” (2.47)
Best
( Image credit : Unsplash )
We often blame ourselves when our efforts don’t translate. The job interview we bombed. The partner who left. The apology that didn’t fix it. We think: If only I had done better. But Krishna says: Your job is to act, not to control the outcome. Results are shared karma, not just yours. You did what you could. Let that be enough. You don’t need to replay the scene 50 times to earn forgiveness. You already gave your best in real time.
2. “One must elevate oneself by one's own mind, not degrade oneself.” (6.5)
Punish
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Here’s the cycle: You mess up. You feel bad. So you punish yourself, mentally, emotionally, sometimes even physically. You degrade your own worth because you think it’s the “right” thing to do. But Krishna doesn’t honor self-punishment. He asks you to become your own inner ally. Not because you're perfect, but because you're the only person who can truly walk yourself out of the dark. Self-respect isn’t a reward for success. It’s the starting point for change.
3. “The wise do not grieve for the living or the dead.” (2.11)
Mindful
( Image credit : Unsplash )
This isn’t a cold dismissal of grief. It’s a recognition of excessive emotional entanglement. Sometimes, you're carrying guilt not because of what you did, but because someone else is hurting, and you think you should have prevented it. You couldn’t. You were never meant to. Grief is natural. But the kind of grief that turns into self-hate, that insists you should have saved them, that’s not wisdom. That’s ego disguised as guilt. And Krishna calls it out.
4. “Even the worst sinner becomes righteous when they turn inward with devotion.” (9.30)
Journal
( Image credit : Unsplash )
You believe your guilt makes you a better person. But Krishna flips it, it’s not guilt that purifies. It’s awareness. You can’t heal by marinating in shame. You heal by turning inward, seeing clearly, and shifting your path. You are not defined by your lowest moment. You are defined by your next one. This shloka isn’t soft spirituality, it’s radical mercy. And it says: You don’t need to stay guilty to prove you’ve changed.
5. “The mind is restless and hard to control... but it can be mastered.” (6.35)
Storm
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Overthinking. Spiraling. Obsessing over “what ifs.” Sound familiar? This shloka doesn’t gaslight your anxiety. It validates it. Krishna tells Arjuna: Yes, the mind is restless. And you can train it, not by force, but by returning to center over and over again. It’s okay if your first reaction is guilt. But you don’t have to believe it every time. Mastery is not about never falling, it’s about knowing when to return.
6. “He who neither rejoices nor hates, neither grieves nor desires, has transcended duality.” (14.22-25)
Boat
( Image credit : Unsplash )
This is what happens when we grow: We stop measuring ourselves by emotional extremes. Krishna teaches that true maturity is equanimity. Not indifference, but inner steadiness. If you blame yourself for every mood, every mistake, every relational glitch, you’re still caught in duality. Letting go isn’t selfish. It’s sacred.
7. “When righteousness declines... I manifest Myself.” (4.7)
Pray
( Image credit : Unsplash )
You’re not alone in your unraveling. Even when things fall apart, even when you feel like you’ve failed everything, you are not abandoned. Krishna shows up when the internal dharma collapses. When you’re lost, when you’ve blamed yourself too long, when you can’t tell the difference between guilt and growth. He comes as clarity. As grace. As the reminder that you were never meant to hold it all alone.
If You Take Away One Thing:
So let this be the last time you say: “It’s all my fault.”
Say instead: “I will learn, but I will not abandon myself.”
That’s what Krishna would want. And deep down, so do you.