Sanskrit
इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः । मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः ॥
indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṃ manaḥ manasas tu parā buddhir yo buddheḥ paratas tu saḥ
Translation
It is said that the senses are great; greater than the senses is the mind: greater than the mind is the Reason; but what is greater than the Reason, is He.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The ranked hierarchy verse 40 implied is now made explicit — senses, then mind, then buddhi, then something beyond even buddhi. This is close kin to the Katha Upanishad’s well-known ordering of faculties, without its chariot imagery, and it supplies the leverage the closing verse needs: if buddhi can be anchored in what’s beyond it, buddhi itself becomes the tool for governing everything below it.
Concepts