Sanskrit
यदक्षरं वेदविदो वदन्ति विशन्ति यद्यतयो वीतरागाः । यदिच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यं चरन्ति तत्ते पदं सङ्ग्रहेण प्रवक्ष्ये ॥
yad akṣaraṃ vedavido vadanti viśanti yad yatayo vītarāgāḥ yad icchanto brahmacaryaṃ caranti tat te padaṃ saṅgraheṇa pravakṣye
Translation
That which is declared indestructible by the Veda-knowers, that which the controlled and passion-free enter, that desiring which Brahmacharya is performed, that path I will declare to thee with brevity.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna explicitly flags what follows as brief (sangrahena) — a compressed answer about akshara, the term used to define brahman back in verse 3, though Arjuna never quite asked about it directly. Naming the “controlled and passion-free” who enter this state, and the ancient link to the vow of brahmacharya, ties the death-moment teaching back to conventional renunciate practice before verse 12 gets concrete again with an actual technique. Framing the imperishable by three groups who seek it — Veda-knowers, ascetics, celibates — locates the Gita’s teaching inside the older tradition rather than against it, before verse 12 gives its own compressed method.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yad akṣaraṃ vedavido vadantiयद् अक्षरं वेदविदो वदन्ति
- which the knowers of the Veda call the Imperishable (yat + akṣaram + veda-vidaḥ + vadanti)
- viśanti yad yatayo vītarāgāḥविशन्ति यद् यतयो वीतरागाः
- which the passionless ascetics enter (viśanti + yat + yatayaḥ + vīta-rāgāḥ)
- yad icchanto brahmacaryaṃ carantiयद् इच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यं चरन्ति
- desiring which they practise chastity (yat + icchantaḥ + brahmacaryam + caranti)
- tat te padaṃ saṅgraheṇa pravakṣyeतत् ते पदं सङ्ग्रहेण प्रवक्ष्ये
- that state I shall declare to you in brief (tat + te + padam + saṅgraheṇa + pravakṣye)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna calls what follows “brief,” but brevity here is doing rhetorical work more than describing actual simplicity — folding the death-moment teaching into the vocabulary of an already-recognized, ancient discipline makes an unfamiliar claim sound like a compressed restatement of something the tradition already accepts, rather than something new.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When you're introducing an idea that's actually new to yourself, notice the instinct to frame it as "just a quick version of what I already know" — that framing eases it in, but be honest about whether it's genuinely familiar or you're borrowing familiarity to make it land.
Professional
- When pitching a new process, anchoring it to an existing, trusted practice helps adoption — but make sure the anchor is accurate, not just a convenient way to make something unfamiliar sound low-risk.
Family & Social
- When asking a family member to try something different, connecting it to a tradition or habit they already trust can make it easier to accept — just be careful the comparison is honest and not merely a way to smuggle in something bigger than advertised.
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