Shloka 13
चातुर्वर्ण्य मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागश: । तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्धयकर्तारमव्ययम्
cāturvarṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ | tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhy akartāram avyayam ||
I have brought forth the fourfold social order, distributing it according to the differentiation of qualities and actions. Yet know Me also as its author—and at the same time as the non-agent, the imperishable: the source of order who remains untouched by the binding sense of doership.
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the fourfold social-ethical order is grounded in guṇa (dispositions) and karma (actions/duties), not merely in birth; and that the Supreme can be the originating cause of such order while remaining ‘non-doer’—unbound by action—because divine agency is not subject to egoic doership or karmic limitation.
In the Bhīṣma Parva’s Bhagavadgītā teaching context, Kṛṣṇa instructs Arjuna on right action and duty amid the impending war. Here He clarifies how duties are structured in society and simultaneously points Arjuna toward the deeper insight that true action can be performed without binding attachment to doership.