Bhagavad Gita



ಸದೃಶಂ ಚೇಷ್ಟತೇ ಸ್ವಸ್ಯಾಃ ಪ್ರಕೃತೇರ್ಜ್ಞಾನವಾನಪಿ ।
ಪ್ರಕೃತಿಂ ಯಾಂತಿ ಭೂತಾನಿ ನಿಗ್ರಹಃ ಕಿಂ ಕರಿಷ್ಯತಿ ॥೩೩॥
sadṛśaṃ ceṣṭate svasyāḥ prakṛterjñānavānapi |
prakṛtiṃ yāṃti bhūtāni nigrahaḥ kiṃ kariṣyati ||33||

Gist of the sloka:
Irrespective of how knowledgeable a person is, he always acts according to his swabhava. Every living being is puppets of their swabhava. It is impossible to suppress ones swabhava.
Explanation:
Irrespective of how much knowledge one obtains, not everyone on the earth will follow a single path. The reason being, due to influences like personal philosophy, how we have been brought up through childhood to now and our swabhava [attached to soul at all times].
If we analyze, we realize that over multiple births and environments, our memories have been fashioned by the 3 gunas and many events that has happened. Those experiences remain with us at all times even when we don’t realize it. Even in the present life, the way we have been brought up, the genetic factors, environmental/societal factors, spouse, children all provide their influences on us. These are called prabhava. This along with the original swabhava keeps influencing us at all time. The action of the memories, swabhava and prabhava define our lives. Prabhava is like a layer of dust covering the swabhava. We need to remove the dust to know what is below that the – real swabhava of the soul.
Like the seed cannot be changed to bring out different fruits from its original, same too is the scenario here. One cannot change one’s swabhava.
A question arises now, if swabhava cannot be changed and all actions, thoughts are dominated by swabhava, why then even attempt to change?
Unless one persists in knowing the right knowledge, practice and performs the actions – one cannot escape from the prabhava influence. Reducing the influence of the prabhava, one will get to know swabhava and act accordingly. Refer 3.35.