📿 Shloka Collection

Na Hi Kashchit Kshanam Api

Gita 3.5 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 — Karma Yoga
न हि कश्चित्क्षणमपि जातु तिष्ठत्यकर्मकृत् ।
कार्यते ह्यवशः कर्म सर्वः प्रकृतिजैर्गुणैः ॥
Na hi kashchit kshanam api jatu tishthatyakarmakrit
Karyate hyavashah karma sarvah prakritijair gunaih
न हि
certainly not
कश्चित्
anyone
क्षणम् अपि
even for a moment
जातु
ever
तिष्ठति अकर्मकृत्
remains without performing action
कार्यते
is made to act
अवशः
helplessly, involuntarily
कर्म
action
सर्वः
everyone
प्रकृतिजैः गुणैः
by the qualities born of prakriti (nature)

Think about it this way. Even when you sit completely still, your heart beats, your lungs breathe, your mind races from one thought to the next. Complete inaction is a fantasy. Every living being, at every moment, is performing some kind of action. Krishna states this as a plain fact.

And the reason is prakriti. The three gunas — sattva, rajas, and tamas — are always at work inside every person. They drive action whether you notice it or not. Someone who sits still and claims to be doing nothing is simply unaware that the mind inside is running at full speed.

This verse explains 3.4. Since abandoning action is genuinely impossible, the only real choice is how you act, not whether you act. Gita 13.21 also describes the role of the gunas in driving all activity.

Modern psychology agrees that the mind is always active. The Gita made this observation thousands of years ago.

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