Sanskrit
पञ्चैतानि महाबाहो कारणानि निबोध मे । साङ्ख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम् ॥ १३ ॥
pañcaitāni mahābāho kāraṇāni nibodha me sāṅkhye kṛtānte proktāni siddhaye sarvakarmaṇām
Translation
These five causes, O mighty-armed, learn of Me as declared in the Sankhya system for the accomplishment of all actions:
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna pivots from ethics to metaphysics, invoking Samkhya cosmology to name five causal factors behind every action — spelled out over the next two verses. Naming this system explicitly, rather than just alluding to it as chapter 2 does, grounds what’s about to become an argument against believing the self is the sole author of anything it does. Verses 13–15 give five factors behind every act — which is why “I alone did it” is a mistake. It is BG 3.27’s non-doership stated as a causal analysis rather than a spiritual claim.
Study deeper
Word by word
- pañcaitāni mahābāhoपञ्चैतानि महाबाहो
- these five, O mighty-armed (pañca + etāni + mahā-bāho)
- kāraṇāni nibodha meकारणानि निबोध मे
- learn from Me the causes (kāraṇāni + nibodha + me)
- sāṅkhye kṛtānte proktāniसाङ्ख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि
- declared in the Sāṅkhya doctrine of ends (sāṅkhye + kṛta-ante + proktāni)
- siddhaye sarvakarmaṇāmसिद्धये सर्वकर्मणां
- for the accomplishment of all actions (siddhaye + sarva-karmaṇām)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Six verses after staking a claim as his own “certain and best belief,” Krishna here does the opposite move — he explicitly cites an outside system, Samkhya, as the source of what he’s about to say. The two rhetorical strategies, personal conviction and appeal to established tradition, sit back to back without any sense that citing tradition here is a demotion; Krishna reaches for whichever kind of authority actually fits the claim — ethical verdicts get his own voice, causal metaphysics gets the citation.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When you make a claim, notice whether it calls for your own conviction or for citing an established source, and use the right one — stating an ethical stance as though it needs external validation weakens it, just as presenting a factual claim as pure personal opinion does.
Professional
- When you present a recommendation, split it: state the values-based judgment call in your own voice and full conviction, and back the factual or technical claims with the established framework or data behind them. Mixing the two erodes trust in both.
Family & Social
- When explaining a decision to your kids, distinguish clearly between 'I feel strongly this is the right call' and 'here's the actual reason this is true' — teaching them to tell personal conviction apart from external fact is a real, transferable skill.
Ask yourself
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