🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 3.40
Chapter 3 · कर्मयोग · Karma-Yoga · "The Yoga of Action" · Verse 40 of 43
🪷 English Translations
Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.
Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition
3.40 It works through the senses, the mind and the reason; and with their help destroys wisdom and confounds the soul.
Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society
3.40 The senses, the mind and the intellect are said to be its seat; through these it deludes the embodied by veiling his wisdom.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school
3.40 Indriyani, the organs; manah, mind; and buddhih, the intellect; ucyate, are said to be; asya, its, desire's; adhisthanam, abode. Esah, this one, desire; vimohayati, diversely deludes; dehinam, the embodied being; avrtya, by veiling; jnanam, Knowledg; etaih, with the help of these, with the organs etc. which are its abodes. [The activities of the organs etc. are the media for the expression of desire. Desire covers the Knoweldge of the Self by stimulating these.]
Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school
3.40 The senses, the mind and the intellect are the instruments of desire in so far as it overpowers the self through them. By means of these, viz., the senses, the mind and the intellect, which have been reduced to the position of servants through attachment to sense objects, desire deludes the embodied soul caught up in Prakrti by covering up Its knowledge. Here 'deluding' means making the self a victim of manifold illusions, by turning It away from the knowledge of Its true nature, and making It indulge in sensuous experiences.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly
3.40. It basis is said to be the sense-organs, the mind and the intellect. With these it deludes the embodied by concealing knowledge.
🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices
The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.
Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors
3.40 इन्द्रियाणि the senses? मनः the mind? बुद्धिः the intellect? अस्य its? अधिष्ठानम् seat? उच्यते is called? एतैः by these? विमोहयति deludes? एषः this? ज्ञानम् wisdom? आवृत्य having enveloped? देहिनम् the embodied.Commentary If the abode of the enemy is known it is ite easy to kill him. So Lord Krishna like a wise army general points out to Arjuna the abode of desire so that he may be able to attack it and kill it ite readily.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)
3.40 Indriyani, the organs; manah, mind; and buddhih, the intellect; ucyate, are said to be; asya, its, desire's; adhisthanam, abode. Esah, this one, desire; vimohayati, diversely deludes; dehinam, the embodied being; avrtya, by veiling; jnanam, Knowledg; etaih, with the help of these, with the organs etc. which are its abodes. [The activities of the organs etc. are the media for the expression of desire. Desire covers the Knoweldge of the Self by stimulating these.]
Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary
3.40 The senses, the mind and the intellect are the instruments of desire in so far as it overpowers the self through them. By means of these, viz., the senses, the mind and the intellect, which have been reduced to the position of servants through attachment to sense objects, desire deludes the embodied soul caught up in Prakrti by covering up Its knowledge. Here 'deluding' means making the self a victim of manifold illusions, by turning It away from the knowledge of Its true nature, and making It indulge in sensuous experiences.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship
3.40 Indriyani etc. In the beginning, it stands on the sense organs at work. For example, when an enemy is sighted with eyes, he generates wrath about himself at the very place of the perceiver's sense-organ, then in the mind i.e., fancy, then in the intellect, i.e., resolve; and producing delusion in this way, it destroys knowledge.
[The Lord] speaks of the means for avoiding this foe as :
Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching
।।3.40।। मन की शान्ति और सन्तोष को लूट ले जाने वाले शत्रु काम के पहचाने जाने पर एक सैनिक के समान राजकुमार अर्जुन की अपने शत्रु के निवास स्थान के विषय में जानने की इच्छा थी। अध्यात्म के उपदेशक के रूप में भगवान् को यह बताना आवश्यक था कि यह काम कौन से स्थान पर रहकर अपनी अत्यन्त दुष्ट योजनाएँ बनाता है। कामना का निवास स्थान है इन्द्रियाँ मन और बुद्धि।बड़े विस्तृत क्षेत्र में अपराध करने वाले दस्यु दल के सरदार के एक से अधिक रहने के स्थान होते हैं जहाँ से वह पूरे दल का संचालन करता है। यहाँ भी कामनारूप शत्रु के स्थानों का स्पष्ट निर्देश किया गया है।बिना किसी नियन्त्रण एवं संयम के इन्द्रियां यदि विषयों में संचार करती हैं तो वे इच्छा के निवास के लिए प्रथम उपयुक्त स्थान हैं। इन्द्रियों के माध्यम से विषय की संवेदनाएँ मन में पहुंचने पर वह भी कामनाजन्य दुखों की उत्पत्ति के लिए उपयुक्त क्षेत्र का कार्य करता है। और अन्त में पूर्व विषयोपभोग की स्मृति से रंजित आसक्तियों से युक्त बुद्धि कामना का तीसरा सुरक्षित वासस्थान है।अविद्या से मोहित जीव शरीर के साथ तादात्म्य करके विषयोपभोग चाहता है। अविवेकपूर्वक मन और बुद्धि के साथ तादात्म्य करके भावनाओं एवं विचारों की सन्तुष्टि की वह इच्छा करता है।इन स्थानों पर इच्छा को खोजना माने शत्रु का सामना करना है। अन्त में शत्रु नाश कैसे करना है इसका वर्णन आगे के श्लोकों में किया गया है
🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā
- This is verse 40 of 43 in Chapter 3 · Karma-Yoga (The Yoga of Action)
- Chapter theme: Action as worship · the yajña-cycle · sva-dharma over para-dharma
- Ṣaṭka grouping: TVAM-Ṣaṭka (BG 1-6 · the jīva)
- Chapter hub: /karma-yoga
🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷
सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)