Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 18, Verse 13
पञ्चैतानि महाबाहो कारणानि निबोध मे।सांख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम्।।
pañcaitāni mahā-bāho kāraṇāni nibodha me
sānkhye kṛtānte proktāni siddhaye sarva-karmaṇām
also searched as "panchaitani mahabaho karanani nibodha me"
Translation
Learn from Me, O Arjuna, these five causes for the accomplishment of all acts, as described in Sankhya-krtanta—the science of exact understanding of things—for the accomplishment of works.
Vāṇi's rendering
Learn from me the five causes that stand behind the completion of every action, as the wisdom texts declare.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| पञ्चpañca | five |
| एतानिetāni | these (joined to the previous word by sandhi: pañca + etāni) |
| महाबाहोmahā-bāho | O mighty-armed one — Krishna's name for Arjuna |
| कारणानिkāraṇāni | causes, the factors that bring a thing about |
| निबोधnibodha | learn, take this in |
| मेme | from me |
| सांख्येsānkhye | in the teaching that counts things out, the reckoning wisdom |
| कृतान्तेkṛtānte | where action reaches its end; the settled conclusion of the matter |
| प्रोक्तानिproktāni | declared, set down |
| सिद्धयेsiddhaye | for the completion, for bringing to success |
| सर्वकर्मणाम्sarva-karmaṇām | of all actions |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 13 mean?
Krishna tells Arjuna that every completed action rests on five causes, and offers to name them. It is an announcement more than a teaching — the teaching arrives in the next verse. What matters here is the claim itself: no deed has a single author, and the old reckoning texts already knew this.
What are the five causes mentioned here?
Krishna lists them in the verse that follows: the body as ground, the sense of being a doer, the instruments, the many separate movements, and finally what no one arranges. Here he only says there are five. The pause is deliberate — he wants Arjuna counting before he hears the count.
What does panchaitani mahabaho karanani nibodha me mean?
Learn from me these five causes, mighty-armed one. Krishna calls Arjuna mighty-armed precisely while telling him his arms are not the whole story. The address flatters the warrior and then dismantles him in the same breath.
Does this verse mean I am not responsible for what I do?
No. Krishna never releases Arjuna from acting; he releases him from believing he acts alone. Responsibility stays. What goes is the private torment of imagining yourself the sole cause of every outcome. You still lift your end of it. You simply stop pretending you lifted all of it.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Count the causes before you claim the deed. Krishna is about to take a single action apart and show five things holding it up — and none of them, alone, is you. Arjuna has spent this war saying I will kill, I will not kill, as though the doing began and ended in his chest. Here Krishna quietly widens the frame. He does not deny that Arjuna acts. He denies that Arjuna acts alone. Notice what happens to the weight of your last regret when you list honestly everything that had to be true for it to occur.