Sanskrit
काङ्क्षन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं यजन्त इह देवताः । क्षिप्रं हि मानुषे लोके सिद्धिर्भवति कर्मजा ॥
kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṃ siddhiṃ yajanta iha devatāḥ kṣipraṃ hi mānuṣe loke siddhir bhavati karmajā
Translation
They who long after success in action on earth worship the Shining Ones; for in brief space verily, in this world of men, success is born of action.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A blunter, more transactional picture than verse 11’s universalism: those who want quick results turn to the gods because, in the human world, success from action does come fast. Krishna doesn’t condemn this outright — he notes it as a lower-order motivation, setting up the sharper distinction between action done for results and action done with knowledge that the chapter builds toward from verse 14 onward. The word kṣipram — “quickly” — is the whole appeal and the whole limit: fruit-directed action pays out fast and small. The alternative the chapter is building toward pays out slowly and completely, in jñāna (BG 4.33).
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Word by word
- kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṃ siddhiṃकाङ्क्षन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं
- desiring success in actions (kāṅkṣantaḥ + karmaṇām + siddhim)
- yajanta iha devatāḥयजन्त इह देवताः
- they worship the gods here (yajante + iha + devatāḥ)
- kṣipraṃ hi mānuṣe lokeक्षिप्रं हि मानुषे लोके
- for quickly, in the human world (kṣipram + hi + mānuṣe + loke)
- siddhir bhavati karmajāसिद्धिः भवति कर्मजा
- success born of action comes (siddhiḥ + bhavati + karma-jā)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna’s critique isn’t that the shortcut fails — he states plainly that it works, and works quickly. That’s exactly what makes it a lower path rather than a false one: success from action really does come fast in this world, which is precisely why it keeps getting chosen over the slower route the rest of the chapter is building toward.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- The habits that hold you back usually aren't the ones that fail — they're the ones that work quickly enough to keep getting chosen over the slower, better path you actually want to build.
Professional
- Quick wins like chasing a metric or firefighting a symptom aren't tempting because they don't work — they're tempting because they do work, fast, which is exactly what makes the slower structural fix so easy to keep deferring.
Family & Social
- The easy way to keep peace — avoidance, quick appeasement — often does work in the moment, and that's exactly why it's so hard to give up for the slower, honest approach that would actually serve the relationship.
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