A core teaching · grounding in mood · easy to enter
“True strength looks like forgiveness, steadiness, and no need to dominate.”
Splendor, forgiveness, steadiness, purity, absence of hostility, and lack of pride belong to the one born with divine qualities, O Bharata.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallysplendor · forgiveness · steadiness · purity · absence of hostility · lack of pride · become · attainment · divine · of one born · O Bharata
A person with noble qualities shows strength, forgiveness, steadiness, purity, no hostility, and no pride.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga" (The Divine and Demoniac Natures).
Verse 3 sits in Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita — Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga, "The Divine and Demoniac Natures". The chapter has 24 verses in total.
A brother who was cheated in a land deal still attends his cousin's wedding without bitterness. Krishna lists forgiveness, steadiness and absence of hostility as marks of a divine nature, visible in moments like that.
Did you like this verse?
Forgiveness, steadiness, purity and freedom from pride complete Krishna's portrait of the person born with divine qualities.
What this verse means
A person with noble qualities shows strength, forgiveness, steadiness, purity, no hostility, and no pride.
Context & commentary
Krishna lists the qualities that mark a noble person. After naming nonviolence, truth, and self-control, he adds the traits that make divine character visible in action.
What it looks like today
A brother who was cheated in a land deal still attends his cousin's wedding without bitterness. Krishna lists forgiveness, steadiness and absence of hostility as marks of a divine nature, visible in moments like that.
“You can measure character by how powerfully someone stays gentle.”