BG 18.43 — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 18.43Chapter 18 · Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

शौर्यं तेजो धृतिर्दाक्ष्यं युद्धे चाप्यपलायनम् ।

दानमीश्वरभावश्च क्षात्रं कर्म स्वभावजम् ॥

śauryaṃ tejo dhṛtirdākṣyaṃ yuddhe cāpyapalāyanam

dānamīśvarabhāvaśca kṣātraṃ karma svabhāvajam

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

Valor, fierce presence, steadiness, swift skill, never fleeing battle, generosity, and the power to lead, these are the warrior's duties, born of his own nature.

ekras · bhāṣya

Shaurya — heroism. Tejah — bold ardor. Dhritih — steadiness. Dakshyam — swift competence. Yuddhe apalayanam — non-flight in battle. Danam — generosity. Ishvara-bhavah — lordly bearing. Kshatram karma svabhavajam — the kshatriya's natural-born duty.

Krishna names the kshatriya's seven-fold svadharma. The chapter directly addresses Arjuna's kshatra-condition: this is precisely the duty he is being asked to fulfill on Kurukshetra.

Shankara reads the seven — saurya, tejas, dhriti, dakshya, non-retreat in battle, dana, ishvara-bhava — as the svabhava-born duties of the kshatriya. Each term is a precise behavioral or interior quality. The chapter's whole reach to Arjuna is in this verse: his confusion at chapter 1's start about whether to fight is structurally answered here — fighting in dharma-yuddha is precisely his svadharma.

Madhusudana supplies the richest analytical glosses: saurya is vikrama — the disposition to strike even those stronger than oneself. Tejah is pragalbhya — the quality of being un-dominated by adversaries — parai-ra-dharshaniyatva. Dhritih is the non-collapse of the body-sense-aggregate even in great calamity. Dakshyam is prompt unconfused action when urgent affairs arise. Each gloss is operationally precise; the kshatriya's whole life-form is held in the seven.

Ramanuja opens each term toward Bhagavan: saurya is the capacity to enter battle without fear; tejas is being un-overpowered by adversaries; dhriti is power to complete what has been undertaken even when obstacles interrupt. Dana is not mere generosity but transfer of what one regards as one's own into another's ownership, a rehearsal of the deeper surrender of all kshetras to Bhagavan as their true sheshin. Ishvara-bhava — lordly bearing — is the kshatriya's right to govern in Bhagavan's name. The bhakti-frame's kshatra-karma is full kainkarya in the warrior register.

Madhva reads kshatra-karma on the bheda-frame: shaurya, tejas, dhriti, dakshya, apalayanam, dana, ishvara-bhava. None of these qualities originates in the kshatriya as svatantra; each is svabhava-born — meaning the guna-pattern Hari has assigned. The bhakta-kshatriya's seven-fold expression is the operating shape of his eternal paratantra-mode.

Vallabha's terse commentary names the essentials: dhriti as dairya — fortitude, not mere endurance. Dakshya as battle-competence. Ishvara-bhava as aishvarya — lordliness. He reads them as svabhava flowing from Krishna's lila-prasada into the kshatriya's nature. In pushti-marga the kshatriya's martial gifts are not earned or cultivated but gifted by Krishna's grace as the shape of that varna's life.

Shridhara reads all eight qualities as svabhavika for the kshatriya: saurya is parakrama — valor; tejah is pragalbhya — boldness; dhriti is dairya; dakshya is kaushala — skill; apalayana is paranmukha-ta — not turning the face away from the enemy; dana is audarya — magnanimity; ishvara-bhava is niyamana-shakti — power of governance. The chapter's diagnostic of the kshatriya's specific svadharma is now precisely positioned for Arjuna's situation.

Context

where

Chapter 18 · Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 18.42

Shama, dama, tapas, shaucha, kshanti, arjava, jnana, vijnana, and astikya are the natural-born duties of a brahmin.

What's going on

Valor, fierce presence, steadiness, swift skill, never fleeing battle, generosity, and the power to lead, these are the warrior's duties, born of his own nature.

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

Perform the full scope of your professional role — leadership, difficult decisions, generosity with credit, not retreating from conflict — as niskama-karma: the fruit is not yours to hold. The point is the purification of the instrument, not the outcome.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

When you exercise authority or governance over others — a team, a household, an institution — recognize isvarabhava as a delegated shadow of Bhagavan's sovereignty. You are not the lord; you are the lord's steward. That recognition reshapes how power is held.

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Dvaita

In any moment of genuine heroism or generosity, pause and locate the source: this capacity is not self-generated. Practice returning each act of valor or dana mentally to Hari as its actual author, collapsing the fiction of self-sufficiency.

Śuddhādvaita

Let your natural gifts — whatever your svabhava actually is — flow without anxious self-management. Vallabha's reading says these are prasada, not achievements. The kshatriya does not manufacture courage; it is given. Your work is to stay open to what flows through you.

Bhakti

Sridhara's clean inventory is a diagnostic: which of the eight do you actually possess as svabhava and which are you performing? Honest self-reading here — not self-criticism — is itself a bhakti-discipline, the devotee turning clear eyes on the shape of the self Isvara has given.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudan's point that kshatriya-karma is sattvopasarjana-rajoguna-svabhavajam (rajas with sattva as support) is a map for any high-pressure vocation: you need the rajas energy to act and strike, but sattva must be its ground, or rajas collapses into aggression. Build the sattva foundation first, then let the rajas do its work.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

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The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 18, Verse 43: Krishna to Arjuna — Mokṣa-Sannyāsa-Yoga