Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 4, Verse 11
ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम्।
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः।।
मम वर्त्मानुवर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः।।
ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāns tathaiva bhajāmyaham
mama vartmānuvartante manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ
also searched as "ye yatha mam prapadyante tans tathaiva bhajamyaham"
Translation
Whoever resorts to Me in any manner, I favor them in the same manner; men experience Me alone in different ways, O Arjuna.
Vāṇi's rendering
However people come to me, that is how I meet them. Every path they walk is walking toward me.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| येye | those who |
| यथाyathā | in whatever way, however |
| माम्mām | to me |
| प्रपद्यन्तेprapadyante | come, take refuge, approach |
| तान्tān | them (sandhi: tān + tathā becomes tāns tathā) |
| तथाtathā | in that same way |
| एवeva | exactly, precisely so |
| भजामिbhajāmi | I meet, I love, I respond to |
| अहम्aham | I |
| ममmama | my |
| वर्त्मvartma | path, road, track |
| अनुवर्तन्तेanuvartante | they follow, they walk along |
| मनुष्याःmanuṣyāḥ | human beings |
| पार्थpārtha | Arjuna, son of Pṛthā |
| सर्वशःsarvaśaḥ | in every way, from every side |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 Verse 11 mean?
It means Krishna meets each person in the manner of their approach. Come with fear, and he steadies you; come with love, and he returns it; come with questions, and he answers. The way you turn toward him sets the shape of the response — and every road anyone walks already runs toward him.
Ye yatha mam prapadyante — what is Krishna saying here?
He is saying the meeting is never withheld. Prapadyante means to come, to fall toward, to take refuge — and whatever form that taking has, bhajāmi comes back in the same form. Krishna does not grade the approach. He mirrors it. What you bring is what you will find waiting.
Does this verse mean all paths lead to the same place?
Krishna says mama vartma — the path is his, walked in every direction, sarvaśaḥ. He is not flattening differences between paths. He is saying no walker is outside him. The roads differ in length and difficulty; none of them leads away. Where you are standing now is already on it.
If Krishna responds to everyone equally, why do some people feel nothing?
Because the response takes the shape of the approach. A half-turned heart meets a half-turned answer — not from any coldness in Krishna, but from the honesty of the mirror. Nothing is being withheld from you. Change how you come, and watch what changes in what comes back.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
View on the App Store
Commentary
Notice the grammar of it: the initiative is yours, the response is his. However you come — frightened, bargaining, curious, half-believing — that is the shape the meeting takes. Krishna does not correct your approach before answering it. He answers it in its own language. Then the anxiety of choosing dissolves: every road walked is already his road, whether the walker knows the name of it or not. Arjuna, standing between kinsmen, wants to know if he has picked the wrong way. The answer is that there is no way out of the field. Come as you are; you will be met as you are.