Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 13, Verse 7
अमानित्वमदम्भित्वमहिंसा क्षान्तिरार्जवम्।आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रहः।।
amānitvam adambhitvam ahinsā kṣāntir ārjavam
ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ
also searched as "amanitvam adambhitvam ahinsa kshantir arjavam"
Translation
Modesty, absence of ostentation, non-injury, patience, sincerity, service to the preceptor, purity, firmness, and self-restraint;
Vāṇi's rendering
Humility, freedom from pretence, harming none, patience, honesty; devotion to one's teacher, purity, steadiness, self-command.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अमानित्वम्amānitvam | humility; not demanding respect |
| अदम्भित्वम्adambhitvam | freedom from pretence; no display of virtue |
| अहिंसाahinsā | harming none |
| क्षान्तिःkṣāntiḥ | patience; bearing without retaliating (sandhi: kṣāntir before ārjavam) |
| आर्जवम्ārjavam | straightness; honesty of word and act |
| आचार्य-उपासनम्ācārya-upāsanaṁ | attending upon one's teacher (written ācāryopāsanaṁ by sandhi of ācārya + upāsanam) |
| शौचम्śaucaṁ | purity, outward and inward |
| स्थैर्यम्sthairyam | steadiness; not being moved off course |
| आत्म-विनिग्रहःātma-vinigrahaḥ | self-command; holding oneself in hand |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 Verse 7 mean?
Krishna begins listing what he will call knowledge, and the list is made of conduct: humility, no pretence, harming none, patience, honesty, care for one's teacher, purity, steadiness, self-command. Knowledge here is not information held in the mind. It is the shape a life takes when nothing false needs defending.
What does the line amanitvam adambhitvam ahinsa kshantir arjavam teach?
It names five ways of taking up less room. Not needing honour, not performing goodness, injuring nothing, enduring what comes, and staying straight in speech. Each one removes a pretence. What remains, when the pretences are gone, is clear enough to see with — and seeing clearly is the whole aim of this chapter.
Why does Krishna call these qualities knowledge instead of virtues?
Because in the Gītā knowing is not an act of the intellect alone. A mind busy protecting its image cannot attend to what is actually there. These qualities clear the obstruction. Krishna is not adding an ethics chapter to a metaphysics chapter; he is saying the instrument must be steady before anything true shows in it.
How do I practise self-command in ordinary life?
Ātma-vinigrahaḥ is not suppression. It is the pause between the impulse and the hand. You feel the urge to correct someone, to be admired, to answer sharply — and you simply do not move. Practised once, it is nothing. Practised daily, it becomes the steadiness the verse calls sthairyam.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Ask what knowledge is and Krishna answers with manners. Not doctrines, not insights — humility, freedom from pretence, patience, service to the one who taught you. Arjuna wanted to know the field and its knower; he is handed a description of how a person walks through a room. Because knowing is not stored, it is worn. Every item here makes you smaller in the eyes of others and steadier in your own. A man who must be seen cannot see. Watch how you enter your next conversation — needing to be noticed, or not. That is the measurement.