Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 13, Verse 20
कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते।पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते।।
kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate
puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ bhoktṛtve hetur ucyate
also searched as "karya karana kartritve hetuh prakritir uchyate"
Translation
The Prakṛti is said to be the cause of agency to the body (Kārya) and sense-organs (Karaṇa); the Self is said to be the cause of experiencing pleasure and pain.
Vāṇi's rendering
Nature drives the doing — body, instrument, act. The person within is why pleasure and pain are felt.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वेkārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve | in the doership of effect and instrument — the body that is produced and the organs through which it acts |
| हेतुःhetuḥ | the cause, the reason |
| प्रकृतिःprakṛtiḥ | nature, the material ground of all becoming (appears as prakṛtir before the following vowel) |
| उच्यतेucyate | is said to be, is called |
| पुरुषःpuruṣaḥ | the person within, the one who dwells in the body |
| सुखदुःखानाम्sukha-duḥkhānāṁ | of pleasures and pains |
| भोक्तृत्वेbhoktṛtve | in the experiencing, in the tasting of them |
| हेतुःhetuḥ | the cause, the reason (appears as hetur before the following vowel) |
| उच्यतेucyate | is said to be, is called |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 Verse 20 mean?
It divides one experience into two owners. Prakṛti — nature — runs the doing: the body, the senses, the chain of cause and effect. The puruṣa, the person within, is why any of it is felt as pleasant or painful. Action belongs to nature. Experience belongs to you.
What does karya karana kartritve hetuh prakritir uchyate teach?
That agency is not where you assume it is. The machinery of acting — limbs, instruments, results — is nature's business, turning as it must. Krishna places you elsewhere: not in the doing, but in the tasting. That is a smaller territory than you thought, and a far more intimate one.
If nature does everything, am I responsible for anything?
Krishna is not excusing you. He is showing where your stake actually lies. The act runs on causes; the suffering of it lands in you. Knowing this does not end action — it ends the frantic ownership of action, while leaving you fully answerable for how you meet what comes.
How does this verse help with grief?
Grief feels like something the world did to you. This verse says the world only turned; the ache arose in the one who is present to the turning. That is not a dismissal. It is a relocation — and once you know where the pain lives, you know where to bring attention.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Split the sentence and watch what each half claims. The doing belongs to nature — the body that moves, the hands that grip, the whole apparatus of cause and effect grinding along. Nothing there is personal. But the feeling is not nature's; feeling needs someone for whom it matters. Arjuna's grief is proof he is present. Krishna is not dismissing the pain — he is locating it. The ache you carry is not manufactured by your circumstances; circumstances only turn. You are the one in whom the turning registers as sweet or bitter. Ask which half of your trouble is machinery, and which half is you.