Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 3, Verse 11
देवान्भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वः।
परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ।।
परस्परं भावयन्तः श्रेयः परमवाप्स्यथ।।
devān bhāvayatānena te devā bhāvayantu vaḥ
parasparaṁ bhāvayantaḥ śreyaḥ param avāpsyatha
also searched as "devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah"
Translation
By this, please the gods, and they will support you. Thus, nourishing each other, you may obtain the highest good.
Vāṇi's rendering
Sustain the gods by offering, and they sustain you. Feeding each other, both reach the highest good.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| देवान्devān | the gods, the shining powers that hold the world's workings |
| भावयताbhāvayatā | by sustaining, by causing to thrive (joined with the next word by sandhi) |
| अनेनanena | by this — by offering, by sacrifice |
| तेte | those |
| देवाःdevāḥ | gods |
| भावयन्तुbhāvayantu | let them sustain, let them bring you into thriving |
| वःvaḥ | you (all of you) |
| परस्परम्parasparam | one another, mutually |
| भावयन्तःbhāvayantaḥ | sustaining, keeping each other in being |
| श्रेयःśreyaḥ | the good, what is genuinely best |
| परम्param | highest, supreme |
| अवाप्स्यथavāpsyatha | you will reach, you will come to attain |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3 Verse 11 mean?
It means the world runs on mutual feeding. You sustain the devas through offering; they sustain you in return. Krishna is not describing a bargain but a circulation — rain, grain, action, gift, all keeping one another alive. And the śreyaḥ, the highest good, comes to both sides together. Never to the one who only receives.
What does devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah mean?
Sustain the gods by this offering, and let those gods sustain you. Bhāvaya means to cause something to be, to bring it into thriving. Krishna says the same verb twice, once in each direction. Whatever holds you up is itself being held up — partly by what you give, partly by what you refuse to hoard.
Does this verse mean I have to perform rituals to succeed?
It means you have to give. Ritual was the form that giving took in Arjuna's world; the principle underneath it is older than any altar. Every day you are held up by rain, labour, kindness, air. Krishna asks only that the flow not stop at you. What passes through you must pass on.
Why does Krishna say both reach the highest good together?
Because the good he means is not a prize handed to a winner. Śreyaḥ is what arises when the circulation is whole. A wheel does not have a favoured spoke. If one part of the exchange starves, the whole thing seizes — so the gain, when it comes, arrives on both sides at once or not at all.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Krishna has just described the wheel — rain, food, offering, action. Here he names what turns it. Not worship as payment. Sustenance, given both ways. You feed the gods; the gods feed you. One verb runs through the whole verse — bhāvaya, bhāvayantu, bhāvayantaḥ — cause to be, bring into being. Each holds the other in existence. Nothing here allows an arrangement where you take more than you return. And the highest good is not awarded to one side; both reach it together, or neither does. Look at what you drew from today and gave nothing back for. That is where the wheel is stuck.