Bhagavad Gita — Moksha Sannyasa Yoga, Shloka 15
Moksha Sannyasa Yoga
शरीरवाङ् mनोभिर्यत्कर्म प्रारभते नरः । न्याय्यं वा विपरीतं वा पञ्चैते तस्य हेतवः ॥ १८.१५ ॥
śarīra-vāṅ-manobhir yat karma prārabhate naraḥ | nyāyyaṃ vā viparītaṃ vā pañcaite tasya hetavaḥ || 18.15 ||
മനുഷ്യൻ ശരീരം, വാക്ക്, മനസ് എന്നിവകൊണ്ട് ആരംഭിക്കുന്ന ഏതു കര്മ്മവും—അത് ധര്മ്മാനുസൃതമായാലും അധര്മ്മമായാലും—അതിനുള്ള കാരണങ്ങൾ ഇവ അഞ്ചുതന്നെയാണ്.
मनुष्य शरीर, वाणी और मन से जो भी कर्म आरम्भ करता है—वह न्याय्य हो या विपरीत—उसके ये पाँच ही कारण हैं।
Whatever action a person undertakes with body, speech, and mind—whether proper or improper—these five are its causes.
Traditional versions often render ‘nyāyya’ as righteous/just and ‘viparīta’ as contrary/unjust; academic translations keep the ethical polarity without importing sectarian standards.
FAQs
It broadens ‘action’ to include speech and thought, highlighting that ethical cultivation involves inner life as well as outward behavior.
The same causal nexus underlies all actions, regardless of moral valence; this supports a systematic account of karma rather than a purely voluntarist one.
It generalizes the five-cause model to all human initiatives, setting up the warning against attributing action to the self alone (18.16).
Use the body-speech-mind framework for self-audit: consider how habits, communication patterns, and mental narratives jointly shape outcomes.