Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 8, Verse 1
अर्जुन उवाच
किं तद्ब्रह्म किमध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम।
अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तमधिदैवं किमुच्यते।।
किं तद्ब्रह्म किमध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम।
अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तमधिदैवं किमुच्यते।।
arjuna uvāca
kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama
adhibhūtaṁ ca kiṁ proktam adhidaivaṁ kim ucyate
also searched as "kim tad brahma kim adhyatmam kim karma purushottama"
Translation
Arjuna said, O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What exists in the individual plane? What is action? What is said to exist in the physical plane? And what is said to exist in the divine plane?
Vāṇi's rendering
What is the eternal? What is the self? What is action? What stands behind the elements, behind the gods?
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अर्जुनarjuna | Arjuna |
| उवाचuvāca | said |
| किम्kiṁ | what |
| तत्tad | that (joined in the verse as tadbrahma) |
| ब्रह्मbrahma | the eternal, the vast ground of all that is |
| किम्kim | what (joined in the verse as kimadhyātmaṁ) |
| अध्यात्मम्adhyātmaṁ | what stands as the self within a person |
| किम्kiṁ | what |
| कर्मkarma | action |
| पुरुषोत्तमpuruṣottama | O highest among persons |
| अधिभूतम्adhibhūtaṁ | what stands behind the perishable elements |
| चca | and |
| किम्kiṁ | what |
| प्रोक्तम्proktam | is declared to be (joined in the verse as proktamadhidaivaṁ) |
| अधिदैवम्adhidaivaṁ | what stands behind the shining ones, the gods |
| किम्kim | what (joined in the verse as kimucyate) |
| उच्यतेucyate | is called |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8 Verse 1 mean?
Arjuna asks Krishna to define six terms that closed the previous chapter: brahman, adhyātma, karma, adhibhūta, adhidaiva, and adhiyajña. It is not doubt and not challenge. He has heard words larger than his understanding and refuses to nod along. The whole eighth chapter is Krishna answering, term by term.
What does kim tad brahma kim adhyatmam mean in simple words?
What is the eternal, and what is the self? Arjuna is asking whether the vast ground of everything and the something-within-him are two things or one. Krishna's answer, coming in the next verses, is compact almost to the point of terseness — brahman is the imperishable, adhyātma is one's own being.
Why does Arjuna ask so many questions here instead of acting?
Because Krishna has just named realities Arjuna cannot yet see. Asking is not delay; it is the honest response to teaching that outruns you. Arjuna neither swallows the words nor waves them off. He holds them up and asks what they contain — and that is why the answers come.
What is the meaning of Purushottama in this verse?
The highest among persons. Arjuna is not flattering Krishna; he is naming why he is asking this particular chariot-driver rather than any teacher. The address places the question where he believes the answer lives. Whom you ask is already half of what you will hear.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Six questions, and not one of them about the war. Arjuna began this Gītā collapsed on a chariot floor asking whether to fight. Now he is asking what the eternal is, what action is, what stands behind the gods — the questions of a student, not a casualty. Krishna has been using these words; Arjuna wants them opened. Notice he asks before he agrees. He does not pretend to understand, and he does not dismiss what he cannot follow. That is the whole discipline of listening. When something true is said to you and lands past your grasp, the honest move is not belief, and not refusal. Ask.