Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 5, Verse 4
सांख्ययोगौ पृथग्बालाः प्रवदन्ति न पण्डिताः।
एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम्।।
एकमप्यास्थितः सम्यगुभयोर्विन्दते फलम्।।
sānkhya-yogau pṛthag bālāḥ pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ
ekamapyāsthitaḥ samyag ubhayor vindate phalam
also searched as "sankhyayogau prthag balah pravadanti na panditah"
Translation
Children, not the learned, speak of Sankhya and Yoga as distinct; however, he who is firmly set in one, attains the fruit of both.
Vāṇi's rendering
Only children call knowledge and action two paths. Stand firmly in either, and you win the fruit of both.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| सांख्यsāṅkhya | the path of knowledge, of discerning what is real |
| योगौyogau | and yoga — the two together, in the dual: knowledge and action as a pair |
| पृथक्pṛthak | separate, distinct (sandhi: pṛthag before bālāḥ) |
| बालाःbālāḥ | children, the immature |
| प्रवदन्तिpravadanti | they declare, they go about saying |
| नna | not |
| पण्डिताःpaṇḍitāḥ | the wise, those who have seen for themselves |
| एकम्ekam | one, either one |
| अपिapi | even, so much as (sandhi: ekam api → ekamapi) |
| आस्थितःāsthitaḥ | one who stands firm in, is established in |
| सम्यक्samyak | rightly, wholly, without half-measure (sandhi: samyag) |
| उभयोःubhayoḥ | of both (sandhi: ubhayor before vindate) |
| विन्दतेvindate | wins, comes upon, finds |
| फलम्phalam | the fruit, the result |
Frequently asked
Why does Krishna call people who separate knowledge and action children?
Because the distinction is a beginner's way of seeing. To one still outside both, sāṅkhya and yoga look like rival careers. To one who has actually entered either, they turn out to be the same movement described from two sides — and Krishna says the paṇḍita, the one who knows from the inside, never speaks of them as two.
Does this verse mean I can ignore one path entirely?
It means you need not divide your effort. The verse hinges on samyak — rightly, wholly. Standing in one path halfway wins nothing. Standing in it completely wins the fruit of both, because a path followed to its end stops being separate from the other.
How does 5.4 answer Arjuna's question in 5.1?
Arjuna asked Krishna to choose for him between renouncing action and doing it. Krishna refuses the frame of the question itself, then in the next verse says plainly that whatever the knowers reach, the doers reach too. The choice Arjuna agonised over was never the real one.
What is the practical instruction here?
Stop auditing the road you did not take. Whatever your work is — study, service, ordinary duty — go into it entirely rather than dividing yourself between it and an imagined better path. The fruit of both comes to whoever is fully standing in one.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna has just asked which of the two is better, and Krishna calls the question childish. Not cruel — accurate. A child sees two doors and believes he must choose one. The grown eye sees they open into the same room. Knowledge is what action becomes when the grasping drops out of it; action is what knowledge looks like when it moves. So the argument you keep having with yourself — withdraw and study, or stay and work — is a false argument, and it is costing you both. Krishna does not tell you which to pick. He tells you to stand somewhere fully, and stop measuring the other road.