Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15, Verse 4

Chapter 15 – Purushottama Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

ततः पदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यं
यस्मिन्गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः ।
तमेव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये ।
यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी ॥

Transliteration

tataḥ padaṃ tatparimārgitavyaṃ yasmingatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ .
tameva cādyaṃ puruṣaṃ prapadye .
yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī ॥

Meaning

Then that goal must be sought, having reached which no one returns again, with the resolve: I take refuge in that primeval Person from whom this ancient stream of activity has flowed forth.

Word meanings

ततः – then
पदम् – goal, state
तत् – that
परिमार्गितव्यम् – must be sought diligently
यस्मिन् – in which, where
गताः – having gone
न – not
निवर्तन्ति – return
भूयः – again
तम् – that
एव – alone, indeed
च – and
आद्यम् – primeval, first
पुरुषम् – Person, the Supreme
प्रपद्ये – I take refuge in
यतः – from whom
प्रवृत्तिः – the flow of activity, the world-process
प्रसृता – has streamed forth
पुराणी – ancient, beginningless

Anvaya (word order)

ततः तत् पदम् परिमार्गितव्यम्, यस्मिन् गताः भूयः न निवर्तन्ति । यतः पुराणी प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता, तम् एव च आद्यम् पुरुषम् प्रपद्ये ।

Explanation

The sentence left hanging in verse 3 is completed here. Having felled the tree with detachment, ‘then’ one must seek that state from which there is no return. Cutting the tree is not the final goal; it only clears the way. Dispassion on its own can leave life empty, but the Gita leads not to emptiness but to fullness. Cutting and seeking, renunciation and attainment, belong together.

Parimargitavyam means to search thoroughly, from every side, the way one searches for a priceless thing that has been lost. This goal is the same one described in 8.21: ‘That from which, once reached, none return, is My supreme abode.’ From the heavens one must come back when merit is exhausted (9.21), but not from this. The Katha Upanishad, too, follows its image of the tree by pointing to the pure, immortal Brahman in which all the worlds rest and beyond which nothing goes.

The means of the search is given in the same breath: ‘I take refuge in that primeval Person.’ The words are cast as the seeker’s own prayer. He from whom this ancient stream of becoming has flowed, as a magic show flows from the magician, is the one who can also free us from it. In 7.14 Krishna said that his maya made of the gunas is hard to cross, yet those who take refuge in him cross over it. Here that principle is put into practice.

The acharyas bring out different emphases. Shankara treats ‘I take refuge’ as describing the attitude in which the inquiry is pursued: with the feeling of surrender to the primeval Person, one should seek that state through reflection and meditation, and it is finally not other than one’s own true Self. For Ramanuja the verse is a clear pointer to prapatti, complete self-surrender: even detachment becomes firm not by one’s own strength but through refuge in the Lord, and the supreme state is the experience of the Lord himself. Madhva reads it as the attainment of Vishnu’s supreme abode, where the freed soul enjoys bliss in loving dependence on him. For all three, liberation is not a mere escape but a surrendered journey toward the highest Truth.

Context

Verse 3 spoke of cutting down the world-tree with the axe of detachment; this verse completes that sentence and says what follows: seeking the supreme goal and taking refuge in the primeval Person. Verse 5 will describe the qualities of those who reach that imperishable state.

Life lesson

Letting go is meaningful only when it is joined to a search for something higher. Renunciation alone empties the heart; refuge in God fills it. The source from which our entanglement arose is also the source of our release.

Key terms

Pada: the supreme state or goal, liberation
Adya Purusha: the primeval Person, first cause of all
Prapatti: complete surrender to the Lord
Purani pravritti: the beginningless flow of worldly existence