Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 17, Verse 15
अनुद्वेगकरं वाक्यं सत्यं प्रियहितं च यत्।स्वाध्यायाभ्यसनं चैव वाङ्मयं तप उच्यते।।
anudvega-karaṁ vākyaṁ satyaṁ priya-hitaṁ ca yat
svādhyāyābhyasanaṁ caiva vāṅ-mayaṁ tapa ucyate
also searched as "anudvegakaram vakyam satyam priyahitam cha yat"
Translation
Speech that causes no shock, is true, pleasant, and beneficial, and also the practice of reciting scriptures, is called the austerity of speech.
Vāṇi's rendering
Words that trouble no one — true, kind, and useful — and the daily practice of study: this is austerity of speech.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अनुद्वेगकरम्anudvega-karaṁ | causing no agitation or distress in the hearer |
| वाक्यम्vākyaṁ | speech, what is spoken |
| सत्यम्satyaṁ | true |
| प्रियहितम्priya-hitaṁ | kind and genuinely good for the one who hears it |
| चca | and |
| यत्yat | which, that which |
| स्वाध्यायाभ्यसनम्svādhyāya-abhyasanaṁ | the steady practice of study and recitation (sandhi: svādhyāya + abhyasanam) |
| चca | and (from the joined form caiva) |
| एवeva | indeed, precisely (from the joined form caiva) |
| वाङ्मयम्vāṅ-mayaṁ | made of speech, belonging to the tongue |
| तपःtapa | austerity, heat willingly borne (visarga lost before ucyate) |
| उच्यतेucyate | is called |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17 Verse 15 mean?
It names the austerity of the tongue. Speech must be true, must not wound, and must actually serve the one who hears it — all three at once, not two out of three. To this Krishna joins svādhyāya, the daily practice of study, so that the mouth is trained by what it repeats.
What is the meaning of anudvegakaram vakyam satyam priyahitam cha yat?
Anudvega-karaṁ means speech that stirs no agitation in the listener. Satyam is true, priya is kind, hitam is beneficial. Krishna is not asking you to be pleasant at the cost of honesty. He is asking for words that are honest without being weapons — a harder discipline than silence.
Why is speech called an austerity in the Gita?
Because tapas means heat borne willingly, and holding a true sentence that would injure is exactly that. Nothing is being fasted from but your own urge to say it. The body's austerity is visible; this one no one sees. That is what makes it real practice rather than performance.
What is svadhyaya in Bhagavad Gita 17.15?
Svādhyāya is the regular study and recitation of what has been given — returning daily to words larger than your mood. Krishna places it inside the austerity of speech deliberately. What you take in through the ear shapes what comes out of the mouth. Feed it well, and the four tests grow easier.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Four tests, and speech must pass all of them. True but wounding fails. Kind but false fails. Pleasant, true, and useless fails too. Krishna sets the bar where most of us actually live — not in grand vows, but in what leaves the mouth between morning and night. Then he adds study: the daily return to words worth repeating, so the mouth is fed something other than its own noise. This is called austerity because it costs something. You will have a sentence today that is true and would land like a stone. Holding it is the practice.