Sanskrit
निश्चयं शृणु मे तत्र त्यागे भरतसत्तम । त्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र त्रिविधः सम्प्रकीर्तितः ॥ ४ ॥
niścayaṃ śṛṇu me tatra tyāge bharatasattama tyāgo hi puruṣavyāghra trividhaḥ samprakīrtitaḥ
Translation
Hear my conclusions as to that relinquishment, O best of the Bharatas; since relinquishment, O tiger of men, has been explained as threefold.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna signals that a definitive ruling is coming, and previews the method: tyaga itself is not a single, unified thing but comes in three flavors. This threefold move is the chapter’s core technique, and it will be applied not just to relinquishment but, in turn, to knowledge, action, the actor, the intellect, resolve, and happiness — the guna-typology introduced for divine and demoniac natures in chapter 16 and applied to faith, food, and sacrifice in chapter 17 is revealed here as the master key to the Gita’s entire ethical vocabulary. Tyāga itself is threefold by guṇa, like everything in chapter 17. BG 18.7–BG 18.9 run the sattva/rajas/tamas sort one last time, on relinquishment.
Study deeper
Word by word
- niścayaṃ śṛṇu me tatraनिश्चयं शृणु मे तत्र
- hear My conclusion in that matter (niścayam + śṛṇu + me + tatra)
- tyāge bharatasattamaत्यागे भरतसत्तम
- about relinquishment, O best of the Bharatas (tyāge + bharata-sattama)
- tyāgo hi puruṣavyāghraत्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र
- for relinquishment, O tiger among men (tyāgaḥ + hi + puruṣa-vyāghra)
- trividhaḥ samprakīrtitaḥत्रिविधः संप्रकीर्तितः
- is declared to be threefold (trividhaḥ + samprakīrtitaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Before applying the threefold analysis even once, Krishna announces that he’s about to use it — a small metacognitive move that hands Arjuna the classification key in advance rather than making him infer the pattern from scattered examples. Naming the method before running it turns everything from verse 7 onward from a list of assertions into an exercise the reader can follow, and even predict.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're about to reason through something complicated, state your method out loud before applying it — naming the lens up front, rather than making people infer your pattern from scattered conclusions, makes your reasoning followable and even predictable.
Professional
- Before walking stakeholders through a multi-part evaluation, like a three-tier risk rubric, announce the rubric itself first, not just the verdicts it produces; a named framework lets people follow your reasoning instead of just trusting your conclusions.
Family & Social
- When you're about to apply the same rule to several family decisions — like screen time across different kids — state the rule once, upfront, rather than letting each case look like an isolated judgment call.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.