The verse and its meaning · Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 13 · The Field and Its Knower

Sages Already Sang It

Bhagavad Gita 13.5

ऋषिभिर्बहुधा गीतं छन्दोभिर्विविधैः पृथक्।ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश्चैव हेतुमद्भिर्विनिश्िचतैः

Meaning · English

The sages have sung of this in many ways, in many separate hymns, and in the verses of the Brahma Sutra, which are reasoned and settle the matter with sound argument.

Krishna has just promised a summary of the field and its knower. Here he says where that teaching comes from, and it is not from him alone. Three words carry it. Rishi means a seer, one who has looked and then reported. Chhandas means a metre or Vedic hymn, the form the seers used to hold what they saw. Hetu means a reason or cause, so hetumat means something backed by reasoning. Krishna says the sages sang this in many ways, and the hymns differ from one another, each in its own voice. He also points to the Brahma Sutra, a body of short verses that argues the matter step by step and reaches firm conclusions. So the teaching has two supports: the long testimony of seers, and careful logic. The reason he gives it is plain. A listener asked to accept something new may doubt it, so Krishna shows that this is old, widely witnessed and open to examination. Arjuna is asked to trust neither a single voice nor a bare claim. As for the commentators, Shankara reads the Brahma Sutra here as the Upanishadic teaching of Brahman, Ramanuja takes it as the Sutras that teach the soul and God, and Madhva stresses that the reasoning rests on scripture. The verse asks the listener to hear the teaching as something tested.

A trail through a forest is walked by many people over many years, each leaving a slightly different footprint, and a surveyor later maps it with measurements. The footprints are the sages singing in many ways, the survey is the Brahma Sutra's reasoning, and both point to the same path.

1. Pick one belief you hold about your own life, such as what makes you calm or what you owe others. 2. Ask who else has said something like it, a grandparent, a book, a teacher, and write down two names. 3. Then write one plain reason you would give a doubting friend. 4. Notice whether the belief feels steadier when it has both witnesses and reasons.

A man in his fifties sits in a clinic corridor holding a report, while his brother on the phone insists a home remedy is enough and a cousin swears by a different one. He feels pulled in three directions and trusts none of them. The verse points to a way of weighing. First ask whether many independent, careful people have said the same thing over a long time. Then ask whether a reason can be given that survives questions. When the doctor explains the result and the plan, he can check both: does it match what others with the same condition have found, and does it make sense when asked why. A claim that has only a loud voice behind it, or only a clever argument with no one's experience under it, is held more lightly. Ordinary experience confirms that advice repeated by many people we respect, and explainable on request, is easier to act on. The verse does not promise certainty, and it does not replace the doctor's examination. It also does not say the report will be good. It only offers a way to decide with less confusion.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: A Brief Outline Ahead · Bhagavad Gita 13.4
• Next: The Field's Full Inventory · Bhagavad Gita 13.6
• All of Bhagavad Gita · Ask Krishna about it

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