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Adhyāyas / Karma Yogaḥ / verse 33

Mūla — the verse

Gita Press numbering
सदृशं चेष्टते स्वस्याः प्रकृतेर्ज्ञानवानपि। प्रकृतिं यान्ति भूतानि निग्रहः किं करिष्यति
sadṛiśhaṁ cheṣhṭate svasyāḥ prakṛiter jñānavān api prakṛitiṁ yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣhyati
Anuṣṭubh

Translation

Swami Gambhīrānanda · follows Śaṅkara-bhāṣya

Even a man of wisdom behaves according to his own nature. They follow their nature. What can restraint do?

हिन्दी अनुवाद — Swami Tejomayānanda

ज्ञानवान् पुरुष भी अपनी प्रकृति के अनुसार चेष्टा करता है। सभी प्राणी अपनी प्रकृति पर ही जाते हैं, फिर इनमें (किसी का) निग्रह क्या करेगा।।

Pronunciation — Vaamshii

from Vaamshii
सदृशञ् चेष्टते स्वस्याः
प्रकृतेर् ज्ञान वानपि
प्रकृतिय्ँ यान्ति भूतानि
निग्रह% किङ् करिष् यति
॥ ३३ ॥
Read each split group as one breath-unit; hyphens join pādas kept whole for the meter or a compound word. Symbols: # upadhmānīya (visarga before p/ph), % jihvāmūlīya (visarga before k/kh), ऽ avagraha (an elided a). Full method →

Word by word

padārtha
sadṛiśhamaccordingly
cheṣhṭateact
svasyāḥby their own
prakṛiteḥmodes of nature
jñāna-vānthe wise
apieven
prakṛitimnature
yāntifollow
bhūtāniall living beings
nigrahaḥrepression
kimwhat
kariṣhyatiwill do

Themes

from The Thematic Companion to the Bhagavad Gītā
Sāṅkhya

Meaning — Questions & Solutions

from Q&A with KnA
3.33“What can forceful restraint do?”

In the end it is Prakṛti that plays about me; what need have I to control this or that, or to make everyone bend to my command, or to have everything go my way? I know well that not everything will. Yet I desperately try to convince or convert others — sometimes even sincerely feeling “it is my duty to help my fellow humans.” This is a firm no to forced conversion. Let people be; let nature take its course. Why be so troubled about others, when I have enough to attend to in myself? Read carelessly, this could seem to say I need practise no restraint at all — which is wrong. The idea is the detachment of the witness, the “udāsīna-vat āsīnaḥ” of 14.23: make the effort, then let go. Once wisdom has dawned, I have a choice — to act like Kṛṣṇa for the welfare of all, or to roam as an Avadhūta, oblivious of surroundings, in the spirit of this verse. Neither is higher; it is a free choice, like a pastime.