Bhagavad Gita 8.1
अर्जुन उवाच | किं तद्ब्रह्म किमध्यात्मं किं कर्म पुरुषोत्तम | अधिभूतं च किं प्रोक्तमधिदैवं किमुच्यते ||
arjuna uvāca | kiṁ tad brahma kim adhyātmaṁ kiṁ karma puruṣottama | adhibhūtaṁ ca kiṁ proktam adhidaivaṁ kim ucyate ||
Translation
Arjuna said: What is that Brahman, what adhyātma, what karma, O best of men? What is called adhibhūta, and what is termed adhidaiva?
Reflection
What unfamiliar word in your own life have you been pretending you understand?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Eight
After Krishna's promise at the close of Chapter Seven, that the man who knows Him together with adhibhuta, adhidaiva, and adhiyajna knows Him even at death, Arjuna catches the unfamiliar terms and asks for definitions. The questions come fast. Brahman, adhyatma, karma, adhibhuta, adhidaiva. Five stacked together, and two more to follow in the next verse. The student does not pretend to follow. He stops the lecture, names what he does not yet understand, and asks. This is the right reflex. The teaching that runs ahead of the listener's actual grasp helps no one. Arjuna trusts the relationship enough to admit the gap and to ask that the words be defined before the teaching is added to.