A core teaching · reflective in mood · a little context helps
“Even sacred actions differ; their inner quality decides their worth.”
Food, sacrifice, charity, and austerity are each of three kinds. Listen to these distinctions.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallyfood · indeed · also · of everyone · threefold · is · dear · sacrifice · austerity · and likewise · charity · of them · difference · this · listen
Food, sacrifice, charity, and austerity all come in three kinds. Krishna asks Arjuna to listen to the differences.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga" (The Three Kinds of Faith).
Verse 7 sits in Chapter 17 of the Bhagavad Gita — Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga, "The Three Kinds of Faith". The chapter has 28 verses in total.
You choose a meal, make a donation, or push through a hard practice and assume the act itself is enough. Krishna says the inner quality behind it matters just as much.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts attention from the outer form of an act to the quality of consciousness behind it.
What this verse means
Food, sacrifice, charity, and austerity all come in three kinds. Krishna asks Arjuna to listen to the differences.
Context & commentary
On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjuna is frozen, and Krishna begins explaining how even sacred acts can differ in quality. After condemning harsh, lawless austerity, he now introduces the threefold nature of food, sacrifice, charity, and discipline.
Why this verse still matters
You choose a meal, make a donation, or push through a hard practice and assume the act itself is enough. Krishna says the inner quality behind it matters just as much.
“Not every noble act has the same quality. The inner motive changes everything.”
Explore related themes: yajna (32 verses), sattva (26 verses), rajas (21 verses)