Sanskrit
तेजः क्षमा धृतिः शौचमद्रोहो नातिमानिता । भवन्ति सम्पदं दैवीमभिजातस्य भारत ॥
tejaḥ kṣamā dhṛtiḥ śaucam adroho nātimānitā bhavanti sampadaṃ daivīm abhijātasya bhārata
Translation
Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of envy and pride—these are his who is born with the divine properties, O Bhârata.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The third and final verse of the divine catalogue closes with tejas (vigor or radiance), kṣamā (forgiveness), dhṛti (steadfastness under strain — the same term used for Arjuna’s fortitude elsewhere), and freedom from envy and excessive self-regard. The key theological move is in the closing clause: these qualities “belong to one born with divine sampad,” where sampad means something closer to inherited endowment or wealth than achieved virtue. That framing matters for the rest of the chapter — the Gita is describing two natures people are born into rather than two choices made in the moment, which raises, without resolving here, the question of how much of this is destiny versus cultivation. Note tejas (vigour, fire) and dhṛti (fortitude) are on the divine side: the endowment is not meekness. What marks it is the absence of the excess — na ati-mānitā, “not overweening” — which is exactly what defines the demonic (BG 16.4).
Study deeper
Word by word
- tejaḥ kṣamā dhṛtiḥ śaucamतेजः क्षमा धृतिः शौचं
- vigour, forbearance, fortitude, cleanliness (tejaḥ + kṣamā + dhṛtiḥ + śaucam)
- adroho nātimānitāअद्रोहो नातिमानिता
- freedom from malice, no excessive pride (adrohaḥ + na + ati-mānitā)
- bhavanti sampadaṃ daivīmभवन्ति संपदं दैवीं
- come to be, for the divine endowment (bhavanti + sampadam + daivīm)
- abhijātasya bhārataअभिजातस्य भारत
- of one born [to it], O Bhārata (abhijātasya + bhārata)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The divine catalogue opened with abhaya (fearlessness) in verse 1 and closes here with freedom from ati-mānitā (excessive self-importance) — a symmetry worth noticing. Fear makes a person see threats that aren’t there; pride makes them see a status that isn’t earned. Read as bookends, the whole three-verse list describes what becomes visible once both distortions of self-perception are removed, not a set of separately acquired virtues.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Fear and pride are two ends of the same distortion — one makes you see danger that isn't there, the other a status you haven't earned. Before working on any single virtue, ask which of these two you're currently over-correcting for; the others tend to follow once that's fixed.
Professional
- When a team member seems either paralyzed by fear or inflated by overconfidence, treat both as the same underlying problem — a distorted read on their actual position — rather than opposite issues needing opposite fixes. Correcting the perception usually does more than coaching the specific behavior.
Family & Social
- If someone close to you swings between anxious self-doubt and defensive pride, notice that both come from the same place: a distorted sense of where they actually stand. Naming that shared root can land better than treating the two moods as separate problems to manage.
Ask yourself
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