Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, Verse 37

यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन । ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा

yathaidhāṃsi samiddho'gnirbhasmasātkurute'rjuna | jñānāgniḥ sarvakarmāṇi bhasmasātkurute tathā

Translation

As kindled fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does wisdom-fire reduce all actions to ashes.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

yathā

as

edhāṃsi

fuels

samiddhaḥ

kindled

agniḥ

fire

bhasmasāt

(to) ashes

kurute

makes

arjuna

O Arjuna

jñānāgniḥ

of wisdom, fire

sarvakarmāṇi

all actions

bhasmasāt

(to) ashes

kurute

makes

tathā

so

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Just as a well-kindled fire reduces fuel to ashes, so does the fire of wisdom reduce all actions to ashes, i.e., it renders them impotent. The fire of wisdom cannot literally reduce actions to ashes as fire reduces fuel to ashes. Right knowledge is the cause which renders all actions impotent. But the actions by which this body has been brought into existence will come to an end only when their effects will have been fully worked out; for, those actions have already commenced their effects. Thus wisdom can destroy only such actions as have not yet begun to produce their effects, whether they are actions done in this birth before the rise of knowledge and along with knowledge, or those done in the many previous births.