Sanskrit
प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च जना न विदुरासुराः । न शौचं नापि चाचारो न सत्यं तेषु विद्यते ॥
pravṛttiṃ ca nivṛttiṃ ca janā na vidur āsurāḥ na śaucaṃ nāpi cācāro na satyaṃ teṣu vidyate
Translation
Demoniacal men know neither right energy nor right abstinence; nor purity, nor even propriety, nor truth is in them.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Demonic people, Krishna says, understand neither pravṛtti nor nivṛtti — a technical pair in Indian ethical thought denoting engaged worldly action performed rightly and disciplined renunciation, the two recognized paths of a dharmic life. Lacking both isn’t the same as choosing one over the other; it describes people outside the entire framework, without purity, proper conduct, or even truthfulness as functioning categories. This sets up the next several verses, which read like an attempt to reconstruct what a worldview looks like from the inside when that whole scaffolding is simply absent. Pravṛtti and nivṛtti — when to act and when to hold back — is the most basic moral competence, and the demonic type simply lacks the category. Not that they choose wrongly; they cannot see there is a choice.
Study deeper
Word by word
- pravṛttiṃ ca nivṛttiṃ caप्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च
- neither action nor its restraint (pravṛttim + ca + nivṛttim + ca)
- janā na vidur āsurāḥजना न विदुः आसुराः
- the demonic folk do not know (janāḥ + na + viduḥ + āsurāḥ)
- na śaucaṃ nāpi cācāroन शौचं नापि चाचारो
- no purity, nor right conduct (na + śaucam + na + api + ca + ācāraḥ)
- na satyaṃ teṣu vidyateन सत्यं तेषु विद्यते
- nor truth is found in them (na + satyam + teṣu + vidyate)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verse names its diagnosis twice, once in technical vocabulary and once in plain language, within the same two lines: first the specialist pair pravṛtti/nivṛtti, then purity, propriety, and truth — terms anyone would recognize without training in dharmic categories. That doubling suggests the text isn’t only writing for readers fluent in its own technical framework; it wants the diagnosis legible even to someone who has never heard the words pravṛtti or nivṛtti before.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're trying to name what's off in your own thinking, don't stop at the first abstract label that occurs to you — restate it in plain, ordinary language too. If a diagnosis can't survive being said plainly, it probably isn't clear yet.
Professional
- When presenting a technical diagnosis to a mixed audience, follow the specialist term immediately with its plain-language equivalent, the way this verse pairs pravṛtti/nivṛtti with purity, propriety, and truth in the same breath. A finding that only lands with specialists hasn't actually been communicated.
Family & Social
- If you're trying to explain to a family member what feels wrong in a situation, don't rely only on the abstract word that first comes to mind — restate it in the plainest terms you can, the way this verse immediately translates technical vocabulary into ordinary moral language.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.