3.42 A ladder in one line Krishna speaks
इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः
indriyāṇi parāṇyāhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ
manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ
The senses are said to be greater than the body; greater than the senses is the mind; greater than the mind, the understanding; and greater than the understanding is that.
Explanation
A ladder in one line.
- body
- senses, greater than the body
- mind, greater than the senses
- understanding, greater than the mind
- and greater than the understanding, that
The Gita's psychology in a single verse, and it ends without a name. What is above the understanding is left as a pronoun.
Going further
Word by word
- indriyāṇi
- senses
- parāṇi
- superior
- āhuḥ
- are said
- indriyebhyaḥ
- than the senses
- param
- superior
- manaḥ
- the mind
- manasaḥ
- than the mind
- tu
- but
- parā
- superior
- buddhiḥ
- intellect
- yaḥ
- who
- buddheḥ
- than the intellect
- parataḥ
- more superior
- tu
- but
- saḥ
- that (soul)
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A ladder in one line: body, senses, mind, understanding, and then something above the understanding.
The Gita's psychology is almost always ordered like this rather than argued. Notice that the intellect is not the top of the hierarchy — a striking claim in a chapter that has spent forty verses reasoning.