🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 9.12

Chapter 9 · राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोग · Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga · "The Royal Knowledge & Royal Secret" · Verse 12 of 34

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🪷 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

9.12 Their hopes are vain, their actions worthless, their knowledge futile; they are without sense, deceitful, barbarous and godless.

Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society

9.12 Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge and senseless, they verily are possessed of the deceitful nature of demons and undivine beings.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school

9.12 Moghasah, of vain hopes. So also, mogha-karmanah, of vain actions: their rites, such as Agnihotra etc. which are undertaken by them, verily become vain, fruitless actions, because of dishonouring the Lord, disregarding Him who is their own Self. In this way they are of vain actions. Similarly, mogha-jnanah, of vain knowledge: of fruitless knowledge; even their knowledge verily becomes useless. And vicetasah, senseless: i.e., they lose their power of discrimination. Besides, [Besides, in the next birth৷৷.] they become sritah, possessed of; the mohinim, self-deceptive, self-delusive; prakritim, disposition; raksasim, of fiends; and asurim, of demons-according to which the body is the Self; i.e., they become habitually inclined to act cruelly, saying, 'cut, break, drink, eat, steal others' wealth,' etc. [The habit to cut, break, drink, eat, etc. is characteristic of fiends. The habit of stealing others' wealth, etc. is characteristic of demons.] This is stated in the Sruti, 'Those worlds of devils (are covered by blinding darkness)' (Is. 3).

Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school

9.12 Men yielding to the deluding nature characteristics of Asuras and Raksas and not aware of My higher nature like compassion etc. When I am in a human form, are possessed of vain hopes, i.e, their hopes remain fruitless, and their knowledge also is vain, i.e., is fruitless. They are so because of their erroneous understanding which fails to know that all things, mobile and immobile, belong to Me. They are ignorant on account of their being devoid of knowledge of truth everywhere. Whatever they do regarding Me, the Lord of all, is done with an attitude that I am an ordinary mortal. So their efforts go in vain. All this springs from their partaking of the nature of Raksasas and Asuras.

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly

9.12. [They] are of futile aspirations, futile actions, futile knowledge and wrong intellect; and they take recourse only to the delusive nature that is demoniac and also devilish.

🪷 Hindi Translation · हिन्दी अनुवाद

For the Hindi-aware seer · Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's translation · a high-readability modern Hindi rendering · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur tradition. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page for the 102-year-living Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī Mahātmā.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī tradition · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur · highest modern Hindi reading

।।9.12।। जिनकी सब आशाएँ व्यर्थ होती हैं, सब शुभ-कर्म व्यर्थ होते हैं और सब ज्ञान व्यर्थ होते हैं अर्थात् जिनकी आशाएँ, कर्म और ज्ञान सत्-फल देनेवाले नहीं होते, ऐसे अविवेकी मनुष्य आसुरी, राक्षसी और मोहिनी फकृतिका आश्रय लेते हैं।

🪷 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

9.12 मोघाशाः of vain hopes? मोघकर्माणः of vain actions? मोघज्ञानाः of vain knowledge? विचेतसः senseless? राक्षसीम् devilish? आसुरीम् undivine? च and? एव verily? प्रकृतिम् nature? मोहिनीम् deceitful? श्रिताः (are) possessed of.Commentary They entertain vain hopes? for there can be no hope in perishable forms. It is vain hope because they run after transient objects and miss the Eternal. It is vain action? because it is not performed by them as sacrifice unto the Lord. The Agnihotra (a ritual) and other actions performed by them are fruitless? because they insult the Lord. They are senseless. They have no,discrimination. They have no idea of the eternal Self. They worship their body only. They behold no self beyond the body. They neglect their own Self. They do atrocious crimes and cruel actions. They rob others property and murder people. They partake of the nature of the demons and the undivine beings.The Rakshasa are Tamasic and the Asuras are Rajasic.Prakriti means here Svabhava (ones own nature).They see the external human body only. They have no knowledge of the Self that dwells within the body. They do not behold God in the universe. They life for eating and drinking only.He who entertains hope of getting the rewards of actions through mere Karma alone? without the grace of the Lord is one of empty hope and empty deed. Karmas are insentient. They cannot give rewards independently. The omniscient Lord Who knows the relationship between Karmas and their fruits can dispense them. He who has obtained knowledge from books which do not admit of the existence of the Self and which do not speak of the Self is one of empty knowledge. This will not give any reward. That knowledge obtained through the study of spiritual books which treat of Brahman alone can give the reward. (Cf.VII.15XVI.6?20)

Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)

Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship

9.12 Mogha-etc. Their action, knowledge and aspirations are all futile, as these are concerned with the unreal. The demoniac and devilish nature etc. They are of the nature of excessive desire and ignorance.

Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching

।।9.12।। See commentary under 9.13

🪷 Hindi Vyākhyā · हिन्दी व्याख्या

Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · one of the great modern Hindi vyākhyās of the Gītā · direct, pure, deeply Vedāntic · the modern Sanātana-jāgaraṇa. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page · 1904-2005 · Corner 1 Mādhurya operational anchor · whose 6-lakṣaṇa-śaraṇāgati IS Constitutional Principle 24.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · Hindi vyākhyā · the modern bilingual anchor

।।9.12।। व्याख्या--'मोघाशाः'-- जो लोग भगवान्से विमुख होते हैं, वे सांसारिक भोग चाहते हैं, स्वर्ग चाहते हैं तो उनकी ये सब कामनाएँ व्यर्थ ही होती हैं। कारण कि नाशवान् और परिवर्तनशील वस्तुकी कामना पूरी होगी ही-- यह कोई नियम नहीं है। अगर कभी पूरी हो भी जाय, तो वह टिकेगी नहीं अर्थात् फल देकर नष्ट हो जायगी। जबतक परमात्माकी प्राप्ति नहीं होती, तबतक कितनी ही सांसारिक वस्तुओंकी इच्छाएँ की जायँ और उनका फल भी मिल जाय तो भी वह सब व्यर्थ ही है (गीता 7। 23)।'मोघकर्माणः'--भगवान्से विमुख हुए मनुष्य शास्त्रविहित कितने ही शुभकर्म करें, पर अन्तमें वे सभी व्यर्थ हो जायँगे। कारण कि मनुष्य अगर सकामभावसे शास्त्रविहित यज्ञ, दान आदि कर्म भी करेंगे, तो भी उन कर्मोंका आदि और अन्त होगा और उनके फलका भी आदि और अन्त होगा। वे उन कर्मोंके फलस्वरूप ऊँचे-ऊँचे लोकोंमें भी चले जायँगे, तो भी वहाँसे उनको फिर जन्म-मरणमें आना ही पड़ेगा। इसलिये उन्होंने कर्म करके केवल अपना समय बरबाद किया, अपनी बुद्धि बरबाद की और मिला कुछ नहीं। अन्तमें रीते-के-रीते रह गये अर्थात् जिसके लिये मनुष्यशरीर मिला था, उस लाभसे सदा ही रीते रह गये। इसलिये उनके सब कर्म व्यर्थ, निष्फल ही हैं।तात्पर्य यह हुआ कि ये मनुष्य स्वरूपसे साक्षात् परमात्माके अंश हैं, सदा रहनेवाले हैं और कर्म तथा उनका,फल आदि-अन्तवाला है; अतः जबतक परमात्माकी प्राप्ति नहीं होगी, तबतक वे सकामभावपूर्वक कितने ही कर्म करें और उनका फल भोंगे, पर अन्तमें दुःख और अशान्तिके सिवाय कुछ नहीं मिलेगा। जो शास्त्रविहित कर्म अनुकूल परिस्थिति प्राप्त करनेकी इच्छासे सकामभावपूर्वक किये जाते हैं, वे ही कर्म व्यर्थ होते हैं अर्थात् सत्-फल देनेवाले नहीं होते। परन्तु जो कर्म भगवान्के लिये, भगवान्की प्रसन्नताके लिये किये जाते हैं और जो कर्म भगवान्के अर्पण किये जाते हैं, वे कर्म निष्फल नहीं होते अर्थात् नाशवान् फल देनेवाले नहीं होते, प्रत्युत सत्-फल देनेवाले हो जाते हैं-- 'कर्म चैव तदर्थीयं सदित्येवाभिधीयते'(गीता 17। 27)।

🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā

This is verse 12 of 34 in Chapter 9 · Rāja-Vidyā-Rāja-Guhya-Yoga (The Royal Knowledge & Royal Secret)
Chapter theme: BG 9.22 yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham · Krishna's carrying-promise
Ṣaṭka grouping: TAT-Ṣaṭka (BG 7-12 · the Lord)
Chapter hub: /raja-vidya
⭐ Mahābhārata anchor: this verse is also MBh 6.31.12 (Bhīṣma-Parva · the BG in its full narrative home)

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📚 Cite this verse · Academic citation formats

APA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. (n.d.). Bhagavad-Gītā 9.12. Vidhyāmitra. Retrieved 2026-07-28, from https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/9/12

Chicago: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 9.12." Vidhyāmitra. Accessed 2026-07-28. https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/9/12.

MLA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 9.12." Vidhyāmitra, 2026, https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/9/12.

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🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷

सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)