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Bhagavad Gita 2.46

यावानर्थ उदपाने सर्वतः संप्लुतोदके।तावान्सर्वेषु वेदेषु ब्राह्मणस्य विजानतः॥

yāvānartha udapāne sarvataḥ saṃplutodake |tāvānsarveṣu vedeṣu brāhmaṇasya vijānataḥ ||

To the Brahmana who has known the Self, all the Vedas are of as much use as a reservoir of water would be in a place where there is a flood.

Translation by Swami Sivananda · Public domain in India (translator d. 1963)

As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can extract from any scripture that which will serve their purpose.

Translation by Shri Purohit Swami · Public domain in India (translator d. 1941)

Our plain-language meaning of this verse is waiting for scholar review.

Edition: Common 700-verse recension. Arjuna's opening question in chapter 13, absent from that recension, is kept as 13.0.

Transliteration in IAST, generated from the Devanagari text.

Source: Sanskrit text via gita/gita (Unlicense), from the Gita Supersite, IIT Kanpur. Sanskrit text public domain.

Bhagavad Gita 2.46 · SatsangVidya