Verse-21
Chapter 3 — Karma Yoga
Verse 21
🕉 Original Sanskrit Shloka
yadyadācarati śreṣṭhastattadevetaro janaḥ
sa yatpramāṇaṁ kurute lokastadanuvartate
🕉 English Translation
📜 Translation
English
Whatsoever a great man does, that the other men also do. Whatever he sets up as a standard the men of the world follow.
This verse occupies a special place in the inspirations from the Gita. This verse is an ideal for healthy, beautiful and auspicious ideal life! Whatsoever a great man does (yadyadacarati srestha) this part of the verse carries deep implications. The greatness of the great men is due to their conduct. Only the outward show of being of a higher status, beauty, glory is not the touchstone of greatness. Great is the one whose conduct is great. Handsome is that handsome does. Thoughts, conduct, food habits, nature, actions–all together make the conduct of a person. Therefore to become great, it is necessary to pay attention to all this. One more point, that there should just not be the ambition to be called great but awareness and vigilance for becoming great is imperative.
Whatsoever a great man does others follow; one should draw inspiration from this in essence. Understand the profundity of the statement of Lord Shri Krishna. Along with the inspiration, caution is inherent in this verse. Greatness should not be assumed due occupying a high seat, several people at one service, people paying their respects, being worshipped by others–the egoism of greatness is reinforced in these circumstances. Beware! Greatness is something to be imbibed. One has to observe that one's own conduct will be the basis of inspiration to be followed by others; that is why one has to be alert. In both aspects this verse is an inspiration. For those who have to become an ideal and for those who have shown the way to others–for both of them. It is certain that in life one should set an ideal before oneself and that too should be noble and high.
'Mahatmanaam ch charitam srotvayam nityameva ch'. The English poet H. W. Longfellow has also used beautiful words–lives of great men all remind us that we can make our life sublime and departing leave behind footprints on the sands of time. Meaning thereby that the lives of the great men remind us that we can make our lives like theirs. The footprints of their noble deeds left by them on the sands of time in the past keep on motivating us.