Bhagavad Gita 18.13
Spoken by Krishna · Verse 13 of 78
पञ्चैतानि महाबाहो कारणानि निबोध मे । सांख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम् ॥
pañcaitāni mahābāho kāraṇāni nibodha me | sāṃkhye kṛtānte proktāni siddhaye sarva-karmaṇām ||
Learn these five causes of all action from Me, O Mighty-armed — as declared in the Sāṃkhya final teaching.
Word by word (3)
- pañcaitāni mahābāho kāraṇāni nibodha me
- — these five (pañca etāni) causes (kāraṇāni) — know/learn (nibodha = understand thoroughly) from Me (me), O Mighty-armed (mahābāho) — Krishna transitions from the tyāga teaching to a new Sāṃkhya analysis
- sāṃkhye kṛtānte proktāni siddhaye sarva-karmaṇām
- — declared/stated (proktāni) in the Sāṃkhya system at the final conclusion (sāṃkhye kṛtānte = in the Sāṃkhya treatise-end/conclusion-section), for the accomplishment/completion (siddhaye) of all actions (sarva-karmaṇām) — these five causes underlie the completion of every action
- kṛtānte
- — at the conclusion/end (kṛta = done + anta = end); the Sāṃkhya's culminating doctrinal statement; the five causes of action are the Sāṃkhya system's answer to the question 'what makes any action happen?' — kṛtānta may also mean 'the science of karma-completion'
Know from Me, O Mighty-armed, these five causes of the accomplishment of all actions, as declared in the Sāṃkhya system.
A modern analogy
This is an announcement verse — signaling a philosophical pivot from discussing HOW to act (tyāga) to WHY actions happen at all (their five causes). Understanding these five causes is what enables the sāttvic tyāga of doing prescribed action purely because it must be done, attachment and fruit released: when you see that the 'I' is just one of five causes — not the sole agent — releasing fruit-attachment becomes natural.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
MISSING from index. [1]
MISSING from index. [4]
Learn from me, O you of mighty arms! these five causes of the completion of all actions, declared in the Sankhya system. [9]
Listen from me, O thou of mighty arms, to those five causes for the completion of all actions declared in the Sankhya treating of the annihilation of actions. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
All actions are done by the gunas of nature. The ego-deluded one thinks 'I am the doer' — this is the root of bondage.
Sāttvic tyāga: niyata karma done ONLY because 'this must be done,' having abandoned attachment and fruit.
Even yajña-dāna-tapas must be performed having abandoned attachment and fruits — My settled, highest opinion.
The sāttvic tyāgī: neither hates difficult action nor clings to pleasant — sattva-pervaded, wise, doubts severed.
Yajña, dāna, and tapas must NOT be abandoned — they must be performed; they are purifiers of the wise.
Who acts in duty without depending on fruit — that one is the true sannyāsī and yogī, not the fireless or the inactive.
Verse 13 of 78 · back to Chapter 18