Sanskrit
अहिंसा सत्यमक्रोधस्त्यागः शान्तिरपैशुनम् । दया भूतेष्वलोलुप्त्वं मार्दवं ह्रीरचापलम् ॥
ahiṃsā satyam akrodhas tyāgaḥ śāntir apaiśunam dayā bhūteṣv aloluptvaṃ mārdavaṃ hrīr acapalam
Translation
Harmlessness, truth, absence of wrath, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness, compassion to living beings, uncovetousness, mildness, modesty, absence of fickleness,
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The virtue list continues, and its second wave opens with ahiṃsā (harmlessness) and satya (truth) — the same pairing that later yogic and Jain traditions would elevate above all other ethical restraints. Terms like apaiśunam (freedom from malicious gossip) and acapalam (freedom from fickleness) point to a fairly granular moral psychology: the text isn’t just naming broad virtues but the small behavioral tics — backbiting, restlessness — that erode them. There’s still no argument for why these are good; verses 1–3 function as an itemized checklist a listener is meant to recognize themselves in, not a philosophical proof. The divine traits are mostly relational and restraining — non-violence, no fault-finding, gentleness, no grasping. They overlap heavily with the BG 12.13–BG 12.19 portrait of the devotee and the BG 13.8–BG 13.11 definition of jñāna.
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Word by word
- ahiṃsā satyam akrodhasअहिंसा सत्यं अक्रोधस्
- non-violence, truth, absence of anger (ahiṃsā + satyam + akrodhaḥ)
- tyāgaḥ śāntir apaiśunamत्यागः शान्तिः अपैशुनं
- renunciation, peace, no calumny (tyāgaḥ + śāntiḥ + apaiśunam)
- dayā bhūteṣv aloluptvaṃदया भूतेष्व् अलोलुप्त्वं
- compassion to beings, non-covetousness (dayā + bhūteṣu + aloluptvam)
- mārdavaṃ hrīr acapalamमार्दवं ह्रीः अचपलं
- gentleness, modesty, steadiness (mārdavam + hrīḥ + acapalam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
A striking number of this verse’s dozen terms are alpha-privative constructions — ahiṃsā, akrodha, apaiśunam, aloluptvam, acapalam — virtue named as the absence of a vice rather than the presence of a quality. The verse’s implicit theory of character is closer to subtraction than accumulation: much of what marks a person as “divine” here is what impulses they don’t act on, not some additional trait they display.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- The next time you want to grow a virtue, look first at what you'd need to stop doing rather than what you'd need to add — many of the qualities this verse praises are defined by restraint, not by a new skill acquired.
Professional
- When evaluating what makes a colleague trustworthy, notice how much of it is defined by what they don't do — they don't gossip, don't flare up under pressure — rather than by some additional impressive skill. Restraint is often the trait doing the real work.
Family & Social
- If you want to be easier to live with, audit what you could stop doing — the sharp comment, the gossip, the flare of temper — before you look for some new positive habit to add. This verse suggests restraint carries more of the weight than addition does.
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