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Chapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation · 78 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
  2. 2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
  3. 3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
  4. 4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
  5. 5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
  6. 6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.
Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›
Nature & guṇasChapter 18 · The Perfection of Renunciation

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 18.21

Knowledge, action, determination and happiness in the modes

Prakṛti · Material nature

पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान् ।

वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम् ॥ २१ ॥

pṛthaktvena tu yaj jñānaṁ

nānā-bhāvān pṛthag-vidhān

vetti sarveṣu bhūteṣu

taj jñānaṁ viddhi rājasam

Translation

That knowledge by which one sees that in every different body there is a different type of living entity you should understand to be in the mode of passion.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
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Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

Knowledge in Passion

  1. 1

    Seeing a different type of living entity in each different body is knowledge in the mode of passion.

  2. 2

    Prabhupāda explains that this includes thinking the body is the living entity and consciousness ends when the body is destroyed.

  3. 3

    The belief that there are no individual souls, only an all-pervading soul, is also in the mode of passion.

Key points from the purport

Knowledge in passion

That knowledge by which one sees in every different body there is different type of living entity. e.g:

The concept that the material body is the living entity and with the destruction of the body, consciousness is also destroyed

Cause of different bodies – They say bodies differ from one another because of development of different types of consciousness

No separate soul – Body itself is the soul. Consciousness is temporary

Further reading

The Modes Control All Activities

One’s work according to the five factors mentioned above is dictated by the three modes of material nature

This includes:

One’s knowledge (19-22) o One’s action (23-26)

One’s performance of action (27-28) o One’s understandings (29-32)

One’s determination(33-35) o One’s happiness (36-39)

All activities within the universe are thus controlled by the three modes SAKAMA TO NISKAMA KARMA YOGA

Chapter 18, section III: The Modes Control All Activities
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Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

  1. pṛthaktvenabecause of division
  2. tubut
  3. yatwhich
  4. jñānamknowledge
  5. nānā-bhāvānmultifarious situations
  6. pṛthak-vidhāndifferent
  7. vettiknows
  8. sarveṣuin all
3

Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: prakṛti, guṇa.

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 18.21 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to nature & guṇas?

Practice

Observe which mode shaped your last decision.

5

Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

Live this todayWorship Kṛṣṇa Through Your WorkA practice from BG 18.46, close to this verse

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.