Desire can narrow devotion.
Krishna speaks to Arjuna
कामैस्तैस्तैर्हृतज्ञानाः प्रपद्यन्तेऽन्यदेवताः |तं तं नियममास्थाय प्रकृत्या नियताः स्वया ||७-२०||
kāmaistaistairhṛtajñānāḥ prapadyante.anyadevatāḥ . taṃ taṃ niyamamāsthāya prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā ||7-20||
Use this verse when devotion becomes transactional.
Meaning
Those whose knowledge is carried away by various desires resort to other deities, following particular rules according to their own nature.
Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).
In plain words
Desire shapes worship and choices.
Word-by-word meaning
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Explanation
Krishna warns that desire can direct spiritual practice toward limited aims rather than ultimate truth.
Read the traditional commentary
Krishna observes, without scorn, that many people pursue lesser gods and rituals in hope of specific desires — health, wealth, success. Their deeper wisdom has been 'rent away' by these wants, and so, led by their own nature (prakriti), they take up whatever practice promises the boon they crave. The worship is real, but the aim is small.
The verse is descriptive, not condemning. Desire narrows our vision; when we want one thing badly enough, we forget the One who is the source of all things. This is a universal human pattern — we seek the gift and overlook the Giver.
The Gita gently invites us to notice when our spirituality has shrunk to a means of getting what we want, and to ask whether we might instead seek the Divine for Itself, in whom all genuine fulfilment is already contained.
In daily life
Check whether worship is driven by wisdom or craving.
A person may perform rituals only for status, wealth, or control.
Try this today
Add a prayer for wisdom to every material request.
I seek wisdom beyond desire.Reflect
What desire is shaping my spiritual practice?
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Quick check
What does ‘हृतज्ञानाः’ mean in this verse?
Krishna on motivation, in other chapters
- Verse 17.4What you choose to worship reveals what you truly value — let your reverence rise toward the highest, not the fearful or the greedy.
- Verse 2.43Examine whether your spiritual practice is genuinely oriented toward freedom and wisdom, or whether it is simply a refined strategy for satisfying the same desires in more acceptable forms.
- Verse 4.12Desire-driven effort brings quick but limited results; lasting fulfillment asks for a deeper, less grasping kind of action.
- Verse 9.11Do not judge the sacred by its outward appearance; the divine often comes clothed in the humble and ordinary.
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Questions about Bhagavad Gita 7.20
Who says Bhagavad Gita 7.20, and to whom?
Krishna speaks to Arjuna in verse 7.20, in Chapter 7, Jnana Vijnana Yoga (Jnana Vijnana Yoga).
What does Bhagavad Gita 7.20 mean?
Those whose knowledge is carried away by various desires resort to other deities, following particular rules according to their own nature. (Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).)
What is the lesson of Bhagavad Gita 7.20 for daily life?
Check whether worship is driven by wisdom or craving. A person may perform rituals only for status, wealth, or control.
What do the Sanskrit words in Bhagavad Gita 7.20 mean?
कामैः तैः तैः — by this or that desire; हृतज्ञानाः — whose wisdom is rent away; प्रपद्यन्ते अन्यदेवताः — resort to other gods; तम् तम् नियमम् आस्थाय — following this or that rite; प्रकृत्या नियताः स्वया — constrained by their own nature.
Where does verse 7.20 come in the Bhagavad Gita?
It is verse 20 of 30 in Chapter 7, Jnana Vijnana Yoga. The next verse is 7.21.