Chapter 18Verse 14 of 78

Bhagavad Gita 18.14

अधिष्ठानं तथा कर्ता करणं च पृथग्विधम् । विविधाश्च पृथक्चेष्टा दैवं चैवात्र पञ्चमम् ॥

adhiṣṭhānaṃ tathā kartā karaṇaṃ ca pṛthag-vidham / vividhāś ca pṛthak-ceṣṭā daivaṃ caivātra pañcamam

Translation

The basis, the doer, the various instruments, the diverse separate efforts, and divine causation as the fifth.

Five named. Adhishthana, the bodily seat where action is grounded. Karta, the agent, the localized I that initiates. Karana, the instruments, the senses, the limbs, the tools used. Cheshta, the variegated efforts, the actual motions and exertions that play out. Daiva, the unseen factor, fate, destiny, the residue of prior action, the wind that turns the sail. Five contributions to every single deed. The list is meant to be sobering. When a person claims a result as my doing, he ignores four-fifths of what actually produced it. This is not false humility. It is accurate accounting of how acts arise.

Reflection

Which of the five did you ignore in your last analysis of an outcome?

Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eighteen

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