A core teaching · grounding in mood · easy to enter
“True discipline is clean only when reward is no longer the motive.”
That threefold discipline of body, speech, and mind, performed with supreme trust and without craving results, is called sattvic.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Hover a word to focus on it.
Read literallywith trust · supreme · performed · discipline · that · threefold · by people · by those not desiring fruit · by those joined · sattvic · they call
Body, speech, and mind are called pure discipline when practiced with trust and without wanting any reward.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga" (The Three Kinds of Faith).
Verse 17 sits in Chapter 17 of the Bhagavad Gita — Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga, "The Three Kinds of Faith". The chapter has 28 verses in total.
You keep the promise to train at dawn, then no one sees the effort and the applause never comes. The practice still counts when you were never negotiating for praise.
Did you like this verse?
It shifts discipline from performance for approval to steady practice rooted in trust.
What this verse means
Body, speech, and mind are called pure discipline when practiced with trust and without wanting any reward.
Context & commentary
On Kurukshetra, Krishna is still answering Arjuna’s crisis by defining real inner discipline. After describing discipline of body, speech, and mind, he says that such practice is sattvic only when it is done with trust and no hunger for reward.
Why this verse still matters
You keep the promise to train at dawn, then no one sees the effort and the applause never comes. The practice still counts when you were never negotiating for praise.
“Real discipline feels lighter when it is not bargaining for payoff.”
Explore related themes: shraddha (34 verses), sattva (26 verses), tapas (22 verses)