Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 7, Verse 20

कामैस्तैस्तैर्हृतज्ञानाः प्रपद्यन्तेऽन्यदेवताः । तं तं नियममास्थाय प्रकृत्या नियताः स्वया

kāmaistaistairhṛtajñānāḥ prapadyante'nyadevatāḥ | taṃ taṃ niyamamāsthāya prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā

Translation

Those whose wisdom has been led away by this or that desire resort to other Gods, engaged in this or that rite, constrained by their own nature.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

kāmaiḥ

by desires

taiḥ

(by) them

hṛtajñānāḥ

torn away, wisdom, whose, they

prapadyante

approach

anyadevatāḥ

other gods

tam

that

tam

that

niyamam

rule (vow)

āsthāya

having taken up

prakṛtyā

by nature

niyatāḥ

led

svayā

(by) own

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Their desires for progeny, cattle, svarga and the like deprive them of their power of discrimination, and they resort to other Gods (Devatās), other than Vāsudeva, the Self. They engage in rites peculiar to the worship of these Gods; they being constrained to do so by their own nature (prakṛti), by that peculiar tendency (saṃskāra) which they acquired in the previous births.