अर्जुन उवाच | किं तद्ब्रह्म किमध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम | अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तमधिदैवं किमुच्यते || १ ||
arjuna uvāca kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama adhibhūtaṁ ca kiṁ proktam adhidaivaṁ kim ucyate
arjunaḥ uvāca—Arjuna said; kim—what; tat—that; brahma—Brahman; kim—what; adhyātmam—the individual self; kim—what; karma—action; puruṣa-uttama—O Supreme Person; adhibhūtam—the realm of matter; ca—and; kim—what; proktam—is declared; adhidaivam—the realm of the divine; kim—what; ucyate—is called.
“Arjuna said: O Supreme Person, what is Brahman? What is Adhyatma (the individual self)? What is karma? What is declared to be Adhibhuta (the realm of matter)? And what is Adhidaiva (the realm of the divine) said to be?”
Arjuna's six questions form the entire framework of Chapter 8. He is asking Krishna to define the cosmos systematically: the ultimate reality (Brahman), the individual self (Adhyātma), the mechanics of action (karma), the material field (Adhibhūta), the divine field (Adhidaiva), and the realm of sacrifice (Adhiyajña). These questions echo the deepest human longing to understand where we come from and where we are going.
Begin your own inquiry by honestly formulating your fundamental questions. What do you really want to know? What confuses you about existence? Clarifying one's genuine spiritual questions is itself a practice—Arjuna's asking here demonstrates that precise questioning opens the door to liberating answers.