📿 Shloka Collection

Sadrisham Cheshtate Svasyah

Gita 3.33 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 — Karma Yoga
सदृशं चेष्टते स्वस्याः प्रकृतेर्ज्ञानवानपि ।
प्रकृतिं यान्ति भूतानि निग्रहः किं करिष्यति ॥
Sadrisham cheshtate svasyah prakriter jnanavaan api
Prakritim yanti bhutani nigrahah kim karishyati
सदृशम्
in accordance with
चेष्टते
acts, behaves
स्वस्याः प्रकृतेः
of one's own nature
ज्ञानवान् अपि
even a wise person
प्रकृतिम् यान्ति
follow their nature
भूतानि
all beings
निग्रहः
forceful suppression
किम् करिष्यति
what will it accomplish?

Krishna says something startlingly honest here. Even the wise act according to their inborn nature. All creatures follow the pull of their prakriti. So what good does brute-force suppression do?

This does not mean self-discipline is useless. It means that white-knuckling your way through life, fighting every impulse through sheer willpower, will eventually fail. Nature is powerful. The real work is subtler: gradually refining the inner landscape through awareness, practice, and discernment. Quick fixes and forced denial do not hold up over the long run.

This applies the teaching of 3.5 (the gunas drive all action) to personal life. Prakriti's pull is immensely strong.

Verse 3.34 provides the practical response: the real danger lies in raga (attraction) and dvesha (aversion). Guarding against those is the genuine practice.

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