Sanskrit
महर्षयः सप्त पूर्वे चत्वारो मनवस्तथा । मद्भावा मानसा जाता येषां लोक इमाः प्रजाः ॥ ६ ॥
maharṣayaḥ sapta pūrve catvāro manavas tathā madbhāvā mānasā jātā yeṣāṃ loka imāḥ prajāḥ
Translation
The seven great Rishis, the ancient Four, and also the Manus, were born of My nature, and mind; of them this race was generated.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Shifts from qualities to cosmogony. The seven great Rishis, the four Kumaras (“the ancient Four”), and the Manus are said to be mind-born from Krishna, and the human race descends from them — a genealogical claim, not just an emanation of qualities: entire lineages, including humanity’s own progenitors, trace back to him as their proximate mental origin. Mānasā jātāḥ — “born of [His] mind” — makes the progenitors of humanity themselves a vibhūti: not merely representing Krishna’s power, but descending from it. The whole human line is downstream of BG 10.2’s unknowable source.
Study deeper
Word by word
- maharṣayaḥ sapta pūrveमहर्षयः सप्त पूर्वे
- the seven great sages, and the ancient [four] (mahā-ṛṣayaḥ + sapta + pūrve)
- catvāro manavas tathāचत्वारो मनवस् तथा
- the four, and the Manus likewise (catvāraḥ + manavaḥ + tathā)
- madbhāvā mānasā jātāमद्भावा मानसा जाता
- born of My nature, from the mind (mat-bhāvāḥ + mānasāḥ + jātāḥ)
- yeṣāṃ loka imāḥ prajāḥयेषां लोक इमाः प्रजाः
- whose offspring are these creatures of the world (yeṣām + loke + imāḥ + prajāḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Verses 4-5 traced qualities back to Krishna; verse 6 goes a step further and traces the very originators — the Rishis and Manus from whom humanity itself descends — back to the same source. It isn’t enough to say individual traits issue from him; even the ancestral figures a lineage would point to as its own origin turn out, one level up, to be someone else’s descendants.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you trace who you are back to your mentors or family line, remember they too stood on someone else's foundation — this verse traces even the great Rishis and Manus back to Krishna as their origin. Hold self-made achievement loosely; origin always recedes another step.
Professional
- When your team credits one senior figure as the origin of a good practice, ask who that person learned it from — this verse traces the very originators, the Rishis and Manus, back to a still earlier source. Attributed lineage usually goes further back than the first name given credit.
Family & Social
- When telling family history, notice that even the ancestor you treat as the family's starting point had their own origins before that. This verse traces humanity's own progenitors back to an earlier source — every family's founding story sits downstream of an earlier one.
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