Chapter 18, Verse 15
शरीरवाङ्मनोभिर्यत्कर्म प्रारभते नरः | न्याय्यं वा विपरीतं वा पञ्चैते तस्य हेतवः ||१८-१५||
śarīravāṅmanobhiryatkarma prārabhate naraḥ . nyāyyaṃ vā viparītaṃ vā pañcaite tasya hetavaḥ ||18-15||
Meaning
18.15 Whatever action a man performs with his body, speech and mind whether right or the reverse these five are its causes.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna universalizes the principle: whatever a person does through body, speech, or mind — whether righteous or wrong — these same five factors are always its causes. No deed escapes this structure. Even our errors and our virtues arise from the interplay of body, ego, senses, effort, and the divine.
The lesson is both humbling and freeing. It tempers pride in our successes and self-condemnation over our failures, since neither is the work of an isolated ego. At the same time it does not erase responsibility; the doer remains one of the five. The teaching invites a balanced self-understanding: engaged, accountable, yet free of inflated self-importance.
💡 Key Takeaway
Both your right and wrong actions arise from many causes, so hold success and failure with humility.
Related Verses
निश्चयं शृणु मे तत्र त्यागे भरतसत्तम | त्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र त्रिविधः सम्प्रकीर्तितः ||१८-४||
niścayaṃ śṛṇu me tatra tyāge bharatasattama . tyāgo hi puruṣavyāghra trividhaḥ samprakīrtitaḥ ||18-4||
18.4 Hear from Me the conclusion or the final truth about this abandonment, O best of the Bharatas; abandonment, verily, O best of men, has been declared to be of three kinds.
पञ्चैतानि महाबाहो कारणानि निबोध मे | साङ्ख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम् ||१८-१३||
pañcaitāni mahābāho kāraṇāni nibodha me . sāṅkhye kṛtānte proktāni siddhaye sarvakarmaṇām ||18-13||
18.13 Learn from Me, O mighty-armed Arjuna, these five causes as declared in the Sankhya system for the accomplishment of all actions.
अधिष्ठानं तथा कर्ता करणं च पृथग्विधम् | विविधाश्च पृथक्चेष्टा दैवं चैवात्र पञ्चमम् ||१८-१४||
adhiṣṭhānaṃ tathā kartā karaṇaṃ ca pṛthagvidham . vividhāśca pṛthakceṣṭā daivaṃ caivātra pañcamam ||18-14||
18.14 The seat (body), the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various sorts, and the presiding deity, also, the fifth.