Sanskrit
गतिर्भर्ता प्रभुः साक्षी निवासः शरणं सुहृत् । प्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम् ॥
gatir bhartā prabhuḥ sākṣī nivāsaḥ śaraṇaṃ suhṛt prabhavaḥ pralayaḥ sthānaṃ nidhānaṃ bījam avyayam
Translation
The Path, Husband, Lord, Witness, Abode, Shelter, Lover, Origin, Dissolution, Foundation, house, Seed imperishable.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The densest list in the run — twelve terms across two lines, several of them paired opposites (origin and dissolution). Where verses 16-17 identified Krishna with ritual and scriptural objects, this verse shifts to structural and relational roles — witness, shelter, refuge — setting up the move to elemental opposites in verse 19. Śaraṇaṃ suhṛt — “refuge and friend” — is the intimate note in a cosmic list, and it is the same pair BG 5.29 used; the poem keeps folding the sākṣī (bare witness) and the suhṛt (well-wisher) into one being.
Study deeper
Word by word
- gatir bhartā prabhuḥ sākṣīगतिः भर्ता प्रभुः साक्षी
- the goal, the upholder, the lord, the witness (gatiḥ + bhartā + prabhuḥ + sākṣī)
- nivāsaḥ śaraṇaṃ suhṛtनिवासः शरणं सुहृत्
- the abode, the refuge, the friend (nivāsaḥ + śaraṇam + suhṛt)
- prabhavaḥ pralayaḥ sthānaṃप्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं
- the origin, the dissolution, the ground (prabhavaḥ + pralayaḥ + sthānam)
- nidhānaṃ bījam avyayamनिधानं बीजं अव्ययं
- the resting-place, the imperishable seed (nidhānam + bījam + avyayam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The list swings between register with no warning — Lord and Witness sit two words from Husband and Lover — and that’s not carelessness. By refusing to let the grand cosmic terms and the intimate relational ones occupy separate sentences, the verse insists a person can’t approach the totality by mysticism alone or by intimacy alone; the same being who is Origin and Dissolution is also asking to be addressed as a friend.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you think about what matters most in your life, don't keep the grand, abstract goals in one mental compartment and your closest relationships in another — treat the same conversation as capable of holding both cosmic-scale meaning and simple, personal warmth.
Professional
- When you present a strategic vision to your team, don't confine the big-picture framing to a separate slide from what it means for each person day to day — let the scale and the personal stakes sit in the same sentence.
Family & Social
- Don't reserve deep, meaningful conversation for milestones and save small talk for every other day — let the ordinary and the significant register in the same exchange with the people closest to you.
Ask yourself
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