Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 10, Verse 5
अहिंसा समता तुष्टिस्तपो दानं यशोऽयशः।
भवन्ति भावा भूतानां मत्त एव पृथग्विधाः।।
भवन्ति भावा भूतानां मत्त एव पृथग्विधाः।।
ahiṁsā samatā tuṣṭis tapo dānaṁ yaśo 'yaśaḥ bhavanti bhāvā bhūtānāṁ matta eva pṛthag-vidhāḥ
also searched as "ahimsa samata tushtis tapo danam yasho ayashah"
Translation
Non-violence, reality, cheerfulness, austerity, beneficence, fame, and infamy—these different qualities of beings arise from Me alone.
Vāṇi's rendering
Non-harm, evenness, contentment, austerity, giving, honour and disgrace — every state of every being comes from me alone.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अहिंसाahiṁsā | non-harm, refusing to injure |
| समताsamatā | evenness, the same weight given to opposites |
| तुष्टिःtuṣṭiḥ | contentment (appears as tuṣṭis before the next word) |
| तपःtapaḥ | austerity, heat willingly borne |
| दानम्dānaṁ | giving |
| यशःyaśaḥ | honour, good name |
| अयशःayaśaḥ | disgrace, ill repute (the a- is absorbed in the join: yaśo 'yaśaḥ) |
| भवन्तिbhavanti | come to be, arise |
| भावाःbhāvāḥ | states, dispositions, ways of being |
| भूतानाम्bhūtānāṁ | of beings |
| मत्तःmattaḥ | from me |
| एवeva | alone, only |
| पृथग्विधाःpṛthag-vidhāḥ | of many separate kinds |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 Verse 5 mean?
Krishna names seven states — non-harm, evenness, contentment, austerity, giving, honour, disgrace — and traces all of them, in all beings, to himself alone. Virtues you cultivate and reputations you cannot control share one origin. The verse widens the source until nothing in your inner weather stands outside it.
What does 'ahimsa samata tushtis tapo danam yasho ayashah' teach?
It refuses to sort the list. Four practices, then two verdicts the world hands you. Krishna will not let you keep the practices as yours and blame the verdicts on others. Both are bhāvāḥ, states arising — pṛthag-vidhāḥ, of many kinds, from one place.
Why are honour and disgrace listed alongside virtues?
Because you treat them as if they were earned, and they are not. Yaśaḥ and ayaśaḥ arrive; they are not achievements. Placing them beside austerity and giving strips them of their power to grade you. Keep doing the work. Let the reputation be weather.
If everything comes from Krishna, why should I still practise anything?
The verse says the source is one; it never says the doing is optional. Arjuna hears this in the middle of being told to fight. Practise non-harm, practise giving — but stop invoicing the world for results. Origin belongs to Krishna. The next act still belongs to your hands.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Read the list again and notice what is sitting inside it. Non-harm, evenness, contentment — states you would work years to earn. And then honour and disgrace, which no work secures. Krishna puts them in one breath, from one source. Arjuna wants a world where discipline buys reputation; Krishna hands him a world where both the discipline and the reputation arrive from the same place. This is not fatalism. It is relief: you can practise non-harm without auditing what people say about you. Praise came from Krishna, and so did the insult. Neither one is your wage.