Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7, Verse 23 (BG 7.23) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

The actions performed by a person to fulfill desires for perishable pleasures are themselves transient, and therefore their fruits too are fleeting and momentary. Just as ornaments made of gold are themselves gold, the nature of an action depends entirely upon its cause. The fruits obtained from actions limited by time and space are necessarily impermanent, whether they bring pleasure or pain. The end of pleasure is the beginning of sorrow. Thus, when a desire is fulfilled, though there may be a momentary appearance of joy, soon upon its cessation, a person experiences the bitter sting of suffering. The Blessed Lord Sri Krishna states a universal law: those who worship the celestial beings attain the celestial beings. Whichever celestial power presides over a particular law, or whichever region possesses a particular creative capacity—when one invokes that, one can obtain only that fruit. Similarly, My devotees attain Me alone. For the sake of limited pleasures, a person exerts so much effort only to obtain fleeting results in the end. If that same effort were directed toward living a divine life, one could attain eternal bliss and the nature of the Self. Yet due to the outward-turning tendencies of the mind, one identifies with non-self conditions and remains absorbed in the external world of sense objects. The discerning person recognizes the insignificance and futility of sense enjoyment and becomes detached from it. Endowed with discrimination and dispassion, when such a person meditates upon the nature of the Self, they experience that supreme bliss which transcends body, mind, and intellect—which is eternal and unchanging. In the Bhagavad Gita, when the Blessed Lord Sri Krishna uses the word "I," it refers to that infinite principle which is the substratum of both the individual and the universal. Therefore, when He says "My devotees attain Me," His meaning is not the historical person, the son of Devaki, but the consciousness-embodied Self. From this perspective, the knower of the Self becomes the Self itself. This is the true significance of the Blessed Lord Sri Krishna's teaching. Then what is the reason that ordinary people do not strive to attain You? The answer is...