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Bhagavad Gita · 18.14 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·14 of 78

अधिष्ठानं तथा कर्ता करणं च पृथग्विधम्विविधाश्च पृथक्चेष्टा दैवं चैवात्र पञ्चमम्

adhiṣhṭhānaṁ tathā kartā karaṇaṁ cha pṛithag-vidham

vividhāśh cha pṛithak cheṣhṭā daivaṁ chaivātra pañchamam

Sanskrit recitation

What makes an action · 18.13–18.28 · Teaching

Translation

The body, the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various kinds, and the presiding deity—the fifth.

Meaning

Now listen to the characteristics of these five, of which the body is the first. It is termed the support or the seat. The body is the seat of desire, hatred, happiness, misery, knowledge and the like. The individual soul experiences through the body the pleasure and pain that arise through contact with matter. Egoism is the agent or the doer or the enjoyer. Nature does actions but through delusion the individual soul takes to himself the credit of their execution and, therefore, he is called the agent.Karta The enjoyer putting on the nature or properties of the limiting adjuncts with which he comes into contact.Karanam prithagvidham Various organs such as the organ of hearing, by which the individual soul hears the sound, etc. organs of knowledge and action and the mind.Daivam The presiding deity such as the Sun and the other gods by whose help the eye and the other organs perform their respective functions destiny.Cheshta Play of energy in the organs or the senses during the action.Absence of any of these factors will make action impossible.

After Swami Sivananda

What makes an action· 18.13–18.28

Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.

Word-by-word
cha
and
daivam
Divine Providence
kartā
the doer (soul)
tathā
also
karaṇam
senses
pṛithak
distinct
pañchamam
the fifth
vividhāḥ
many
cha eva atra
these certainly are (causes)
cheṣhṭāḥ
efforts
pṛithak-vidham
various kinds
adhiṣhṭhānam
the body

Related verses

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