Speaker: Śrī Kṛṣṇa
शमो दमस्तपः शौचं क्षान्तिरार्जवमेव च ।
ज्ञानं विज्ञानमास्तिक्यं ब्रह्मकर्म स्वभावजम् ॥४२॥
śamo damas tapaḥ śaucaṁ
kṣāntir ārjavam eva ca
jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ
brahma-karma svabhāva-jam
Word for word (synonyms)
- śamaḥ
- peacefulness
- damaḥ
- self-control
- tapaḥ
- austerity
- śaucam
- purity
- kṣāntiḥ
- tolerance
- ārjavam
- honesty
- eva
- certainly
- ca
- and
- jñānam
- wisdom
- vijñānam
- knowledge
- āstikyam
- religiousness
- brahma
- of a *brāhmaṇa*
- karma
- duty
- svabhāva-jam
- born of his own nature
Translation
Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness—these are the qualities by which the brāhmaṇas work.
Defined in the Gītā
Austerity
What is austerity of body, speech and mind?
The austerity of the body consists in this: worship of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother. Cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence are also austerities of the body.
Knowledge
What is knowledge?
Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.
Brāhmaṇa
What are the qualities of a brāhmaṇa?
This verse is one of the Gītā’s own answers.
What this verse teaches
The four social orders (varṇas) and their qualities
Qualities in this verse
- Peacefulness
- self-control
- austerity
- purity
- tolerance
- honesty
- wisdom
- knowledge
- religiousness
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.