Sanskrit
इमं विवस्वते योगं प्रोक्तवानहमव्ययम् । विवस्वान्मनवे प्राह मनुरिक्ष्वाकवेऽब्रवीत् ॥
imaṃ vivasvate yogaṃ proktavān aham avyayam vivasvān manave prāha manur ikṣvākave 'bravīt
Translation
This imperishable yoga I declared to Vivasvân; Vivasvân taught it to Manu; Manu to Ikshvâku told it.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Chapter 4 opens with a claim that will provoke Arjuna’s challenge two verses later: this yoga is imperishable, and Krishna taught it long ago, handed down from the sun-god Vivasvân to Manu to Ikshvâku. It’s a deliberate escalation from Chapter 3’s practical case for karma yoga into a claim about the teaching’s own antiquity and authority, setting up the doctrine of periodic divine transmission that runs through the rest of the chapter. The lineage named here — Vivasvān, Manu, Ikṣvāku — is the royal genealogy of the sūrya-vaṃśa, tying the teaching to kingship rather than priesthood. The figure on the chapter page traces the chain from that opening down to Arjuna, through the break where it was lost, to its restart at BG 4.34.
Study deeper
Word by word
- imaṃइमं
- this
- vivasvateविवस्वते
- to Vivasvān, the sun-god
- yogaṃयोगं
- yoga
- proktavān ahamप्रोक्तवान् अहं
- I taught (proktavān + aham)
- avyayamअव्ययं
- imperishable
- vivasvānविवस्वान्
- Vivasvān
- manaveमनवे
- to Manu
- prāhaप्राह
- told
- manurमनुः
- Manu
- ikṣvākaveइक्ष्वाकवे
- to Ikṣvāku
- 'bravītऽब्रवीत्
- declared (abravīt)
Commentary
Site Commentary
There’s a quiet tension in opening a chapter this way: Krishna calls the yoga “imperishable” in the very same breath that sets up its transmission chain, a chain the next verse will admit has since broken. Claiming permanence for a teaching and then immediately conceding it was lost aren’t contradictory here — they’re the chapter’s whole premise — but it’s worth noticing that “imperishable” describes the teaching’s truth, not its unbroken survival in the world.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- A value or discipline being 'imperishable' in principle doesn't mean it survives in your life without upkeep — the truth of a practice and its actual continuity are two different things, and only one of them takes care of itself.
Professional
- A sound process or piece of institutional knowledge can be objectively correct and still decay from disuse or turnover — don't assume that because something was right when it was set up, it's still being followed now.
Family & Social
- A family value you consider timeless still needs someone actively passing it on in each generation — calling it enduring doesn't substitute for the work of transmitting it.
Ask yourself
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