निश्चयं शृणु मे तत्र त्यागे भरतसत्तम । त्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र त्रिविधः सम्प्रकीर्तितः ॥
niścayaṃ śṛṇu me tatra tyāge bharata-sattama | tyāgo hi puruṣa-vyāghra tri-vidhaḥ samprakīrtitaḥ ||
Hear My definitive word on tyāga, O best of Bharatas — tyāga has been declared three-fold, O tiger among men.
Word by word (3)
- niścayaṃ śṛṇu me tatra tyāge bharata-sattama
- — hear (śṛṇu) My (me) decision/definitive conclusion (niścayam = certainty, final word) about tyāga (tatra = in this matter), O best/most excellent of the Bharatas (bharata-sattama) — Krishna signals: this is the definitive answer
- tyāgo hi puruṣa-vyāghra tri-vidhaḥ samprakīrtitaḥ
- — for (hi) tyāga, O tiger among men (puruṣa-vyāghra = human-tiger), has been declared (samprakīrtitaḥ = well-proclaimed, fully declared) to be three-fold (tri-vidhaḥ) — the same three-fold guṇa structure applies to tyāga as to food/yajña/tapas/dāna in Ch.17
- samprakīrtitaḥ
- — well-proclaimed/fully declared (sam + pra + kīrtita = thoroughly announced); the compound intensifier (sam+pra) signals that this is not a new teaching but a thoroughly established classification — the three-fold tyāga is already canonical in the śāstric tradition
Hear My definitive judgment about tyāga, O best of the Bharatas. For tyāga, O tiger among men, has been declared to be three-fold.
A modern analogy
Krishna uses niścayam (my definitive word) to signal that he is now settling the debate introduced in V3. This is the Gita's characteristic move: present multiple views, then cut through with the authoritative synthesis. V4 is the announcement; V5-11 will be the content.
V4 is the pivot from debate (V3) to Krishna's own verdict. The word niścaya (definitive certainty) is important — this is not another scholarly opinion but the authoritative conclusion. The three-fold tyāga (V5-9) will distinguish: actions that should not be abandoned (niyata karma including yajña-dāna-tapas), actions that should be abandoned (kāmya karma driven by desire), and the tāmasic/rājasic/sāttvic varieties of renunciation. V4's tri-vidha tyāga applies the same guṇa-analysis from Ch.17 to the domain of renunciation itself.
Krishna's niścaya (definitive word) is the frame for Ch.18's teaching authority. The entire Gita has been building to this final chapter's synthesis, and V4 announces the culminating resolution of the sannyāsa/tyāga debate that has run through Ch.3, Ch.5, and now Ch.18. The triple structure (tri-vidha tyāga = tāmasic/rājasic/sāttvic renunciation) will show that the debate in V3 was itself guṇa-conditioned: those who say 'abandon all' are making a tāmasic or deluded argument; those who say 'yajña-dāna-tapas must continue' are correct.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Learn from Me the truth about this abandonment, O best of the Bharatas; abandonment, verily, O best of men, has been declared to be of three kinds. [1]
Hear from Me the final truth about relinquishment, O best of the Bharatas. For relinquishment has been declared to be of three kinds, O tiger among men. [4]
Hear from me the decision about abandonment, O best of Bharatas. For abandonment, O best of men! has been declared to be three-fold. [9]
As to that abandonment, listen to my decision, O best of the sons of Bharata, for abandonment, O tiger among men, has been declared to be of three kinds. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Greed, restless activity, and longing surge — know that rajas is predominant and karma-saṅga is binding.
Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.
Discipline removes the object but longing persists. Only direct experience of the Supreme removes the longing itself.
Rajas — passion, thirst, attachment — binds the embodied one specifically through attachment to action.
Tāmasic kartā: undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, procrastinating.
Abandon all desires born of mental planning — without remainder — and restrain the senses completely, by the mind alone.