Sanskrit
प्रलपन्विसृजन्गृह्णन्नुन्मिषन्निमिषन्नपि । इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेषु वर्तन्त इति धारयन् ॥
pralapan visṛjan gṛhṇann unmiṣan nimiṣann api indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu vartanta iti dhārayan
Translation
Speaking, giving, grasping, opening and closing the eyes, he holdeth: "The senses move among the objects of the senses."
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Completes the list of ordinary acts begun in verse 8 with four more, then supplies the reasoning behind the “I do nothing” conviction: it is the senses that move among their objects, not the self. This is the same subject-object model the chapter’s later metaphysics (verses 14-15) builds on — activity belongs to nature and its instruments, the senses, while the self that witnesses remains unmoved. Iti dhārayan — “holding [the thought] that” — makes the non-doership a sustained recognition, not a one-time realisation: the senses transact with objects, and the witness keeps noticing that this is so.
Study deeper
Word by word
- pralapan visṛjan gṛhṇannप्रलपन् विसृजन् गृह्णन्न्
- talking, letting go, grasping (pralapan + visṛjan + gṛhṇan)
- unmiṣan nimiṣann apiउन्मिषन् निमिषन्न् अपि
- opening and closing the eyes (unmiṣan + nimiṣan + api)
- indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣuइन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेषु
- the senses among the sense-objects (indriyāṇi + indriya-artheṣu)
- vartanta iti dhārayanवर्तन्त इति धारयन्
- 'they move' — holding this (vartante + iti + dhārayan)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verb dhārayan — holding, maintaining as a sustained conviction — is doing careful work: the text doesn’t simply assert that the senses move among their objects while the self stays still, it specifies that the practitioner actively holds this understanding. That distinction matters. This isn’t a fact learned once and then coasted on; it’s a view actively re-affirmed against the more natural-feeling sense that “I” am the one seeing, speaking, grasping.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- An insight about yourself rarely stays installed after one moment of clarity — you have to actively re-hold it, the way this verse describes deliberately maintaining a view against the pull of a more automatic, older one.
Professional
- When you've learned a hard lesson from a past failure — don't take feedback personally, don't over-index on one data point — treat it as a stance you actively re-hold in each new situation, not a fact that governs your reactions by default now.
Family & Social
- A hard-won understanding about a relationship — their criticism isn't really about me — needs to be actively re-held in the moment it's tested, not just remembered as something you once figured out and filed away.
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