Bhagavad Gita · Jnana Vijnana YogaChapter 7, Shloka 20 (7.20)
Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्
कामैस्तैस्तैर्हृतज्ञानाः प्रपद्यन्तेऽन्यदेवताः
तं तं नियममास्थाय प्रकृत्या नियताः स्वया
॥ 7.20 ॥
kāmaistaistairhṛtajñānāḥ prapadyante'nyadevatāḥ
taṃ taṃ niyamamāsthāya prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā
Translation
"Those whose discernment has been stolen by this or that desire, driven by their own nature, adopting this or that rule, take refuge in other deities."
Interpretation
Shankaracharya. Kāmaiḥ tais taiḥ putra-paśu-svargādi-viṣayaiḥ hṛta-jñānāḥ — robbed of discernment by desires for sons, cattle, heaven and the like; vāsudevāt ātmanaḥ anyāḥ devatāḥ — deities other than Vasudeva, who is the self; prakṛtyā svabhāvena janmāntarārjita-saṃskāra-viśeṣeṇa niyatāḥ — driven by their nature, made of impressions gathered in past births.
Acharya Ramanuja. Sarve eva hi laukikāḥ puruṣāḥ svayā prakṛtyā pāpa-vāsanayā guṇamaya-bhāva-viṣayayā niyatāḥ — ordinary people are bound by their own latent tendencies (vasana) directed at objects made of the gunas; hṛta-mat-svarūpa-viṣaya-jñānāḥ — having lost the knowledge of my nature; mad-vyatiriktāḥ kevalendrādi-devatāḥ — taking them to be separate from me, they worship only Indra and the other deities — tat-tad-devatā-viśeṣa-mātra-prīṇanāya — merely to please that particular deity.
AI-assisted draft translation — under review.