श्रीमद्भगवद्गीताShrimad Bhagavad Gita 📖 Read as a flipbook

Bhagavad Gita · Jnana Karma Sannyasa YogaChapter 4, Shloka 15 (4.15)

Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्

एवं ज्ञात्वा कृतं कर्म पूर्वैरपि मुमुक्षुभिः
कुरु कर्मैव तस्मात् त्वं पूर्वैः पूर्वतरं कृतम्
॥ 4.15 ॥

evaṃ jñātvā kṛtaṃ karma pūrvairapi mumukṣubhiḥ
kuru karmaiva tasmāt tvaṃ pūrvaiḥ pūrvataraṃ kṛtam

Translation

"Knowing this, the seekers of liberation of old also performed action; therefore you too do the action that your forebears did long ago."

Interpretation

"Evaṃ jñātvā" — action with this knowledge. Knowledge does not stop action; it changes how action is seen.

Shankaracharya: kuru tena karmaiva tvam, na tūṣṇīm āsanaṃ nāpi saṃnyāsaḥ kartavyaḥ — therefore you must act; sitting idle or renunciation is not your duty. Yadi anātmajñaḥ tvaṃ tadā ātma-śuddhy-artham, tattvavic cet loka-saṅgrahārtham — if you are not a knower of the self, then for self-purification; and if you are a knower of truth, then for the welfare of the world. Pūrvaiḥ janakādibhiḥ (by the ancients, Janaka and others).

Acharya Ramanuja: evaṃ māṃ jñātvā api vimukta-pāpaiḥ pūrvaiḥ api mumukṣubhiḥ uktalakṣaṇaṃ karma kṛtam — even the seekers of liberation of old, freed from sin, knowing me thus, performed action of the kind described; so you too — mad-viṣaya-jñāna-vidhūta-pāpaḥ — washing away your sins through knowledge of me — do the very action pūrvaiḥ vivasvan-manvādibhiḥ kṛtam — that Vivasvan, Manu and the others performed. And as a lead-in to the next verse: vakṣyamāṇasya karmaṇo durjñānatām āha — he tells of the difficulty of understanding (the nature of) the action about to be described.

AI-assisted draft translation — under review.

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