3.33 What can suppression do? Krishna speaks
सदृशं चेष्टते स्वस्याः प्रकृतेर्ज्ञानवानपि
प्रकृतिं यान्ति भूतानि निग्रहः किं करिष्यति
sadṛiśhaṁ cheṣhṭate svasyāḥ prakṛiter jñānavān api
prakṛitiṁ yānti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣhyati
Even one who knows acts according to their own nature. All beings follow their nature. What can suppression do?
Explanation
An unexpectedly humane verse.
Even one who knows acts according to their own nature. All beings follow their nature. What can suppression do?
The question is genuine, and it undercuts a whole style of religious life. Right after calling the scornful lost, the chapter admits that knowing better does not change your temperament.
Going further
Word by word
- sadṛiśham
- accordingly
- cheṣhṭate
- act
- svasyāḥ
- by their own
- prakṛiteḥ
- modes of nature
- jñāna-vān
- the wise
- api
- even
- prakṛitim
- nature
- yānti
- follow
- bhūtāni
- all living beings
- nigrahaḥ
- repression
- kim
- what
- kariṣhyati
- will do
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Even one who knows acts according to their own nature. What can suppression do?
An unexpectedly humane verse in a chapter full of instruction. It concedes that knowing better does not make you different, and that force applied to your own nature mostly produces the hypocrisy of 3.6. The remedy offered in the next verse is not more suppression but not coming under the power of attraction and aversion — a different operation entirely.