Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5, Verse 8
नैव किञ्चित्करोमीति युक्तो मन्येत तत्त्ववित् । पश्यञ्शृण्वन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपञ्श्वसन्
naiva kiñcitkaromīti yukto manyeta tattvavit | paśyañśṛṇvanspṛśañjighrannaśnangacchansvapañśvasan
Translation
'I do nothing at all'; thus should the truth-knower think, steadfast — though seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing, speaking, letting go, seizing, opening and closing the eyes — remembering that the senses move among sense-objects.
— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri
Word meanings
- na
- not
- eva
- even
- kiñcit
- anything
- karomi
- (I) do
- iti
- thus
- yuktaḥ
- the joined (one)
- manyeta
- thinks
- tattvavit
- the essence-knower
- paśyan
- seeing
- śṛṇvan
- hearing
- spṛśan
- touching
- jighran
- smelling
- aśnan
- eating
- gacchan
- going
- svapan
- sleeping
- śvasan
- breathing
Śaṅkarācārya's commentary
The truth-knower is he who knows the true nature of the Self, who sees the Supreme Reality. The duty of the man who, thus knowing the truth and thinking rightly, sees only inaction in actions — in all the movements of the body and the senses — consists in renouncing all actions; for he sees the absence of action. The man, for instance, who thinks of quenching his thirst in a mirage, mistaking it for water, will not, even after knowing that it is no water, resort to the same place for the purpose of quenching his thirst.