Sanskrit
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं परिज्ञाता त्रिविधा कर्मचोदना । करणं कर्म कर्तेति त्रिविधः कर्मसङ्ग्रहः ॥ १८ ॥
jñānaṃ jñeyaṃ parijñātā trividhā karmacodanā karaṇaṃ karma karteti trividhaḥ karmasaṅgrahaḥ
Translation
Knowledge, the knowable and the knower, the threefold impulse to action; the organ, the action, the actor, the threefold constituents of action.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A transition verse that resets the frame: three things drive action (knowledge, the knowable, the knower) and three things constitute it (the instrument, the action, the actor). Having just dismantled the naive doer- notion, Krishna now rebuilds a technical vocabulary he’s about to run through the sattva-rajas-tamas sieve for the next twenty verses — knowledge first, then action, then the actor, then intellect, then resolve, then happiness. The framework for the coming triads: what prompts an act (knower, known, knowledge) and what makes it up (agent, instrument, act). BG 18.19–BG 18.40 then colour each element by guṇa.
Study deeper
Word by word
- jñānaṃ jñeyaṃ parijñātāज्ञानं ज्ञेयं परिज्ञाता
- knowledge, the known, the knower (jñānam + jñeyam + parijñātā)
- trividhā karmacodanāत्रिविधा कर्मचोदना
- are the threefold spur to action (trividhā + karma-codanā)
- karaṇaṃ karma kartetiकरणं कर्म कर्तेति
- instrument, act, agent (karaṇam + karma + kartā + iti)
- trividhaḥ karmasaṅgrahaḥत्रिविधः कर्मसङ्ग्रहः
- are the threefold sum of action (trividhaḥ + karma-saṅgrahaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Two triads land back to back here — the drivers of action, and the parts that make it up — and the text is about to fracture each of six total terms into three guna variants, so by the end of this section a single verb like “to act” has produced eighteen distinct technical categories. Verse 18 is easy to skim past as filler between the ethics of tyaga and the guna analysis, but it’s actually the chapter’s table of contents, laid down before the content it indexes.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Before you dive into analyzing something messy in your own life — a habit, a relationship pattern — outline the dimensions you're going to look at first, the way this verse lays out six terms before examining any of them. A quick table of contents keeps the analysis from turning into an unstructured spiral.
Professional
- Before delivering a detailed audit or review, share the categories you're going to cover upfront, like a table of contents, so the outline of scope arrives before any specific verdict. It keeps people from feeling ambushed by where the review ends up going.
Family & Social
- Before a family conversation that's going to touch several sensitive topics, name the topics you plan to cover first, so no one feels blindsided partway through by scope they didn't sign up for.
Ask yourself
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