Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 18, Verse 41
ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परंतप।कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः।।
brāhmaṇa-kṣatriya-viśāṁ śūdrāṇāṁ ca parantapa
karmāṇi pravibhaktāni svabhāva-prabhavair guṇaiḥ
also searched as "brahmana-kshatriya-visam sudranam ca parantapa"
Translation
The duties of the Brahmanas, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras are clearly divided, O Arjuna, according to their Gunas, born of their nature.
Vāṇi's rendering
The duties of brahmins, warriors, merchants, and workers are divided by the qualities born of each one's nature.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशांbrāhmaṇa-kṣatriya-viśāṁ | of the brahmins, the warriors, and the merchant-farmers |
| शूद्राणांśūdrāṇāṁ | of the workers, those who serve |
| चca | and |
| परंतपparantapa | O scorcher of foes — Krishna's name for Arjuna |
| कर्माणिkarmāṇi | the works, the duties |
| प्रविभक्तानिpravibhaktāni | are distributed, apportioned out |
| स्वभावप्रभवैःsvabhāva-prabhavaiḥ | arising out of one's own nature (the final ḥ becomes r before the next word) |
| गुणैःguṇaiḥ | by the qualities |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 41 mean?
It says that work sorts itself among people according to guṇa — the qualities that rise out of each person's own nature. Krishna names four broad kinds of work and traces the division not to decree but to svabhāva. Different natures, different tasks. The verse describes a distribution, not a hierarchy of worth.
What does the line brahmana kshatriya visam sudranam ca parantapa teach?
Krishna addresses Arjuna as parantapa, scorcher of foes — a warrior's name, spoken just as the four kinds of work are named. The point is placement. Arjuna is being shown where his own nature has already set him down, so that he stops arguing with the hands he has been given.
Does this verse justify the caste system by birth?
The verse grounds the division in svabhāva and guṇa — nature and quality — not in lineage. What a person is made of, what work rises easily from them, what burns them out. Read that way, it is a statement about temperament and capacity. Any system that fixes it at birth has added something the verse does not say.
How do I know what my own svabhava is?
Not by preference. Watch what work you return to when no one is measuring, what exhausts you beyond reason, what you do badly even when trying hard. Nature shows itself in the pattern, not the ambition. Krishna does not ask you to invent your duty. He asks you to recognise it.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
View on the App Store
Commentary
Four names, and centuries of argument over them. Krishna's sentence does not rest its weight on the names but on what divides them: guṇa, the qualities born of svabhāva — one's own nature. Not a decree issued from above, not a rank stamped at birth. A description of how work distributes itself among people who are actually different from one another. Arjuna wants to lay down the bow because the work is terrible; Krishna answers that the work is his because his nature is his. You do not get to choose your nature. You get to work with the one you have. Your duty is already standing there.