Bhagavad Gita — Akshara Brahma Yoga, Shloka 3
The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman
श्रीभगवानुवाच । अक्षरं ब्रह्म परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते । भूतभावोद्भवकरो विसर्गः कर्मसंज्ञितः ॥ ८.३ ॥
śrībhagavān uvāca | akṣaraṁ brahma paramaṁ svabhāvo ’dhyātmam ucyate | bhūtabhāvodbhavakaro visargaḥ karmasaṁjñitaḥ || 8.3 ||
The Blessed Lord said: The Supreme Imperishable is Brahman; one’s own nature is called adhyātma; and the creative outflow that brings forth the existence of beings is called karma.
The Blessed Lord said: The Supreme Imperishable is Brahman; one’s own nature is called adhyātma; the offering/emanation that causes the coming-to-be of beings is called karma.
Kṛṣṇa defines: (1) Brahman as the supreme imperishable (akṣara), (2) adhyātma as svabhāva—intrinsic nature as the inner principle, and (3) karma as 'visarga', a productive discharge/emanation that generates the arising and states of beings.
A key interpretive point is 'svabhāva': some traditions take it as the individual self’s essential nature; others as the Lord’s power manifesting as the inner constitution of beings. 'Visarga' is variously translated as 'offering', 'emanation', or 'creative projection', affecting whether karma is framed ritually or cosmologically.
FAQs
By identifying adhyātma with svabhāva, the verse links spiritual inquiry to examining one’s underlying dispositions and identity-structures, not merely external behavior.
It distinguishes the imperishable absolute (Brahman) from the conditioned processes of becoming (karma as visarga), while situating the inner principle (adhyātma) as the basis of embodied experience.
This verse directly answers Arjuna’s definitional questions (8.1) and sets up later discussion on remembrance and liberation at death.
Useful as a conceptual map: separate what is stable (values/awareness), what is dispositional (habits/character), and what is causal (choices producing outcomes).