Sanskrit
न वेदयज्ञाध्ययनैर्न दानैर्न च क्रियाभिर्न तपोभिरुग्रैः । एवंरूपः शक्य अहं नृलोके द्रष्टुं त्वदन्येन कुरुप्रवीर ॥
na vedayajñādhyayanair na dānair na ca kriyābhir na tapobhir ugraiḥ evaṃrūpaḥ śakya ahaṃ nṛloke draṣṭuṃ tvadanyena kurupravīra
Translation
Nor sacrifice, nor Vedas, alms, nor works, Nor sharp austerity, nor study deep, Can win the vision of this Form for man, Foremost of Kurus, thou alone hast seen.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
A blunt list of every major practice-based path the tradition recognizes — Vedic study, sacrifice, charity, ritual action, harsh austerity — followed by a flat “none of these.” Coming right after verse 47’s “by my grace,” this isn’t really a new claim so much as the negative restatement of it: effort of any kind, however rigorous, addresses a different problem than the one this vision required solving. The chapter will name the actual method in verse 54, but first it spends this verse clearing the ground, ruling out every credential-based route a serious practitioner might otherwise assume should work.