Bhagavad Gita · 3.33 · Path of Selfless Service·33 of 43
सदृशं चेष्टते स्वस्याः प्रकृतेर्ज्ञानवानपि।प्रकृतिं यान्ति भूतानि निग्रहः किं करिष्यति ॥
sadṛiśhaṁ cheṣhṭate svasyāḥ prakṛiter jñānavān
api prakṛitiṁ yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣhyati
Sanskrit recitation
Your work, not someone else’s · 3.30–3.35 · Teaching
Translation
Even a wise man acts in accordance with his own nature; beings will follow their nature; what can restraint do?
Meaning
He who reads this verse will come to the conclusion that there is no scope for mans personal exertion. It is not so. Read the following verse. It clearly indicates that man can conquer Nature if he rises above the sway of RagaDvesha (love and hatred).The passionate and ignorant man only comes under the sway of his natural propensities, and his lower nature. He cannot have any restraint over the senses and the two currents of likes and dislikes. The seeker after Truth who is endowed with the four means, and who is constantly practising meditation can easily control Nature. (Cf.II.60V.14XVIII.59).
After Swami Sivananda
Your work, not someone else’s· 3.30–3.35→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 3.30Renouncing all actions in Me, with the mind centered on the Self, free from hope and egoism, and from mental fever, fight thou.
- 3.31Those who constantly practice this teaching of Mine with faith and without caviling, they too are freed from actions.
- 3.32But those who criticize My teaching and do not practice it, deprived of all knowledge and lacking discernment, know them to be doomed to destruction.
3.33Even a wise man acts in accordance with his own nature; beings will follow their nature; what can restraint do?
- 3.34Attachment and aversion for the objects of the senses abide in the senses; let no one come under their sway; for, they are his enemies.
- 3.35Better is one's own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged. Better is death in one's own duty; the duty of another is fraught with fear.
Word-by-word→
- api
- even
- kim
- what
- yānti
- follow
- bhūtāni
- all living beings
- nigrahaḥ
- repression
- svasyāḥ
- by their own
- prakṛitim
- nature
- jñāna-vān
- the wise
- kariṣhyati
- will do
- sadṛiśham
- accordingly
- cheṣhṭate
- act
- prakṛiteḥ
- modes of nature
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