Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 17, Verse 23
तत्सदिति निर्देशो ब्रह्मणस्त्रिविधः स्मृतः।ब्राह्मणास्तेन वेदाश्च यज्ञाश्च विहिताः पुरा।।
oṁ tat sad iti nirdeśo brahmaṇas tri-vidhaḥ smṛtaḥ
brāhmaṇās tena vedāś ca yajñāś ca vihitāḥ purā
also searched as "om tat sad iti nirdesho brahmanas trividhah smritah"
Translation
Om, Tat, Sat—thus, Brahman is denoted by this threefold expression. In the past, Brahmanas, the Vedas, and sacrifices were ordained in association with these.
Vāṇi's rendering
Om Tat Sat — the threefold name of the eternal. By it, long ago, priests, scriptures, and offerings were ordained.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ॐoṁ | Om — the primal syllable, the sound-name of the eternal |
| तत्tat | Tat — 'That', the one who cannot be pointed at directly |
| सत्sad | Sat — what truly is, the real that does not pass (sat, before iti) |
| इतिiti | thus, so spoken |
| निर्देशःnirdeśo | the naming, the pointing-out (nirdeśaḥ, joined with brahmaṇaḥ) |
| ब्रह्मणःbrahmaṇas | of Brahman, of the eternal (brahmaṇaḥ) |
| त्रिविधःtri-vidhaḥ | threefold |
| स्मृतःsmṛtaḥ | is remembered, held in tradition |
| ब्राह्मणाःbrāhmaṇās | the priests, those who carry the sacred word (brāhmaṇāḥ) |
| तेनtena | by that, by means of it |
| वेदाःvedāś | the Vedas, the scriptures (vedāḥ) |
| चca | and |
| यज्ञाःyajñāś | the offerings, the fire-rites (yajñāḥ) |
| चca | and |
| विहिताःvihitāḥ | were ordained, were set in place |
| पुराpurā | long ago, in the beginning |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17 Verse 23 mean?
It gives the eternal a threefold name — Om, Tat, Sat — and then says something startling: priests, scriptures and offerings were established by that name, not the other way round. The sacred word is not a decoration on ritual. Ritual grew out of it. Krishna is naming the source before he describes what flows from it.
What does om tat sad iti nirdesho brahmanas trividhah smritah mean?
Om, Tat, Sat — thus the eternal is pointed to in three ways, and this is what memory and tradition have held. Om is the sound the whole begins in. Tat turns you toward what no finger can indicate. Sat is what remains real when everything borrowed has fallen away.
Why are Om, Tat and Sat spoken as three names and not one?
Because no single word can hold it. Om is utterance, Tat is distance, Sat is being. Each fails alone and together they circle what they cannot enclose. Krishna is not offering a definition to memorise. He is giving Arjuna three doors into the same room, and any of them opens.
How do I use Om Tat Sat in my own life?
Not as a charm for results. Speak it at the beginning of what you do — the offering, the giving, the difficult discipline — and the act stops being yours to score. You are returning the work to what it came from. The doing stays the same; the ownership quietly changes hands.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Three syllables, and everything else came after. Krishna does not describe Om Tat Sat as a formula added to worship; he says worship itself — the priests, the chanted books, the fire and the giving — was ordained by it, long ago. The name came first. We usually work the other way: we build the ritual, then hope meaning collects in it. Arjuna is being shown the opposite order. Meaning is not the residue of a well-run ceremony; it is what the ceremony was made from. So when your work feels hollow, do not add more to it. Say the name over it. Let it belong to what made it.