Chapter 4 Overview
Verse 4.37
यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन। ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा।।4.37।।
yathaidhānsi samiddho ’gnir bhasma-sāt kurute ’rjuna jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi bhasma-sāt kurute tathā
Sanskrit Chant Recitation
Chapter 4, Verse 37
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Scripture Translation Room
Sanskrit to English Translation
Translator:
As the blazing fire reduces fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge reduce all actions to ash.
A Reading - Rantideb
Why: as a blazing fire reduces wood to ashes, so does the fire of knowledge reduce all actions to ashes, repeating the burning metaphor to emphasize how thoroughly clear understanding can dissolve accumulated weight.
In life: a genuine realization can sometimes dissolve years of accumulated guilt or confusion almost at once, faster than slow, incremental effort would.
Teaching: don't assume you always need years of gradual work to release something heavy, sometimes a single clear understanding does more than a decade of effort.
yathāas
edhānsifirewood
samiddhaḥblazing
agniḥfire
bhasma-sātto ashes
kuruteturns
arjunaArjun
jñāna-agniḥthe fire of knowledge
sarva-karmāṇiall reactions from material activities
bhasma-sātto ashes
kuruteit turns
tathāsimilarly
Deep Classical Commentary (Bhashya)
Author:
4.37 यथा as? एधांसि fuel? समिद्धः blazing? अग्निः fire? भस्मसात्कुरुते reduces to ashes? अर्जुन O Arjuna? ज्ञानाग्निः fire of knowledge? सर्वकर्माणि all actions? भस्मसात्कुरुते reduces to ashes? तथा so.Commentary Just as the sees that are roasted cannot germinate? so also the actions that are burnt by the fire of knowledge cannot bear fruits? i.e.? cannot bring man to this world again for the enjoyment of the fruits of his actions. This is reducing actions to ashes. The actions lose their potency as they are burnt by the fire of knowledge. When the knowledge of the Self dawns? all actions with their results are burnt by the fire of that knowledge just as fuel is burnt by the fire. When there is no agencymentality (the idea I do this)? when there is no desire for the fruits? action is no action at all. It has lost its potency. The fire of knowledge can burn all actions except the Prarabdha Karma? or the result of the past action which has brought this body into existence and which has thus already begun to bear fruits or produce effects.According to some philosophers even the Prarabdha Karma is destroyed by the fire of knowledge. Sri Sankara says in his AparokshanubhutiIn the passage his actions are destroyed when the Supreme is realised the Veda expressly speaks of actions (Karmas) in the plural? in order to signify the destruction of even the Prarabdha.There are three kinds of Karmas or reaction to or fructification of past actions (1) Prarabdha? so much of the past actions as has given rise to the present birth? (2) Sanchita? the balance of the past actions that will give rise to future births -- the storehouse of accumulated actions? and (3) Agami or Kriyamana? acts being done in the present life. If by the knowledge of the Self only the Sanchita and Agami were destroyed and not Prarabdha? the dual number would have been used and not the plural. (Sanskrit grammar has singular? dual and plural numbers). (Cf.IV.1019)