Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 18, Verse 43
शौर्यं तेजो धृतिर्दाक्ष्यं युद्धे चाप्यपलायनम्।दानमीश्वरभावश्च क्षात्रं कर्म स्वभावजम्।।
śauryaṁ tejo dhṛtir dākṣyaṁ yuddhe cāpy apalāyanam
dānam īśvara-bhāvaś ca kṣātraṁ karma svabhāva-jam
also searched as "shauryam tejo dhritir dakshyam yuddhe chapy apalayanam"
Translation
Valor, invincibility, steadiness, dexterity, and not fleeing in battle, generosity, and regality are the duties of a Kshatriya, born of his inherent nature.
Vāṇi's rendering
Courage, fire, steadiness, skill; never fleeing a battle; generosity; the bearing of command — the natural work of the warrior.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| शौर्यम्śauryam | courage, valour |
| तेजःtejaḥ | fire, blazing presence (appears as tejo before the next word) |
| धृतिःdhṛtiḥ | steadiness, holding firm (appears as dhṛtir before the next word) |
| दाक्ष्यम्dākṣyam | skill, competence in the doing |
| युद्धेyuddhe | in battle |
| चca | and (joined with the next word as cāpy) |
| अपिapi | also, even |
| अपलायनम्apalāyanam | not running away |
| दानम्dānam | giving, open-handedness |
| ईश्वर-भावःīśvara-bhāvaḥ | the bearing of one who commands; lordliness (appears as bhāvaś before ca) |
| चca | and |
| क्षात्रम्kṣātram | belonging to the warrior |
| कर्मkarma | work, action |
| स्वभाव-जम्svabhāva-jam | born of one's own nature |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 43 mean?
Krishna names the natural work of the warrior: courage, fire, steadiness, skill, refusal to flee a fight, generosity, and the bearing of command. These are not commandments handed down but a temperament described. Svabhāva-jam — born of one's own nature. The work suits the person before the person tries to suit the work.
What is the meaning of shauryam tejo dhritir dakshyam?
Four qualities in a row: courage, fire, steadiness, skill. Śaurya is nerve under threat. Tejas is the heat others feel when you enter a room. Dhṛti is what keeps you there when it turns hard. Dākṣya is knowing how to actually do the thing. Nerve without skill is noise.
Is this verse saying warriors are born, not made?
It says the work grows out of the nature, not the other way round. Krishna is not sorting people into cages; he is telling Arjuna to stop borrowing someone else's dharma. The renunciate's calm would be a costume on him. What is native to you costs less to sustain.
How do I find my own svabhava?
Not by choosing it. Watch where effort feels like effort and where it feels like weather — where you keep returning even unrewarded, what you do well without being taught. That grain was there before your ambitions arrived. Krishna's point is practical: build on it, rather than spending a life sanding against it.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Read the list again and notice what sits in the middle of it. Never fleeing a battle — the precise thing Arjuna proposed doing in the first chapter, bow down, better to beg than to kill. Krishna does not argue him back with ethics here. He simply names the grain of the man: courage, fire, steadiness, skill, generosity, the bearing of command. This is not a rule imposed from outside; it is a description of what Arjuna already is, handed back to him. Your own nature has a shape too. Half your exhaustion comes from working against its grain.