Chapter 3 · Verse 21·Spoken by Krishna
यद्यदाचरति श्रेष्ठस्तत्तदेवेतरो जनः। स यत्प्रमाणं कुरुते लोकस्तदनुवर्तते
yad yad ācharati śhreṣhṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate
Saved for this reading session
Three movements · tap a label to switch
Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
Word by Word
Reading set · 5 translations · 3 commentaries
Translation · 5 voices
Whatever a superior person does, another person does the same! Whatever they uphold as authority, an ordinary person follows that.
Swami Gambiranandaafter Śaṅkara's bhāṣya· paired with Śaṅkara
Whatever a great man does, others do too. Whatever standard he sets, the world follows it.
Swami Adidevanandaafter Rāmānuja's bhāṣya· paired with Rāmānuja
Whatever a great man does, others of lesser stature follow suit; whatever standard he sets, the world follows it.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayanafter Madhva's bhāṣya· paired with Madhva
Whatever a great man does, others also do; whatever he establishes as the standard, the world follows.
Swami SivanandaThe Bhagavad Gita
For whatever a great man does, others imitate; people conform to the standard he has set.
Shri Purohit SwamiThe Geeta
Whatever action the foremost man, the leading one, does, that very action other people, following him, do. And whatever standard he sets, worldly or Vedic, the world follows; the world makes that its standard. If here you have any doubt as to the duty of holding the world together, then why do you not look at Me?
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
Whatever the foremost man, renowned as a knower of the whole of scripture and as one who carries it out, does, that very thing the man of incomplete knowledge does too. And the action that the foremost man carries out, with whatever authority and whatever auxiliaries, that very action, with those same auxiliaries, the world of incomplete knowledge carries out too. Therefore, for the protection of the world, the action suited to one's own caste and stage of life is, in its entirety and always, to be carried out by the foremost man, renowned as exemplary. Otherwise the sin born of the world's ruin would dislodge even him from the discipline of knowledge.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.
This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.
Whatever sentence or the like such a man treats as authoritative, in the manner he has stated the world takes its stand; that is the sense.
Contemporary English rendering of the Sanskrit bhāṣya, pending scholar review.