🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 1.31

Chapter 1 · अर्जुनविषादयोग · Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga · "The Yoga of Arjuna's Despondency" · Verse 31 of 47

← BG 1.30↑ Chapter 1 hub · Bhagavad-Gītā indexBG 1.32 →

🪷 English Translations

Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.

Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition

1.31 The omens are adverse; what good can come from the slaughter of my people on this battlefield?

Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society

1.31. And I see adverse omens, O Kesava. I do not see any good in killing my kinsmen in battle.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school

1.31 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.

Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school

1.26 - 1.47 Arjuna said - Sanjaya said Sanjaya continued: The high-minded Arjuna, extremely kind, deeply friendly, and supremely righteous, having brothers like himself, though repeatedly deceived by the treacherous attempts of your people like burning in the lac-house etc., and therefore fit to be killed by him with the help of the Supreme Person, nevertheless said, 'I will not fight.' He felt weak, overcome as he was by his love and extreme compassion for his relatives. He was also filled with fear, not knowing what was righteous and what unrighteous. His mind was tortured by grief, because of the thought of future separation from his relations. So he threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot as if to fast to death.

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly

1.31. O Govinda! Of what use in the kingdom to us? Of what use are the pleasures [thereof] and the life even?

🪷 Hindi Translation · हिन्दी अनुवाद

For the Hindi-aware seer · Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's translation · a high-readability modern Hindi rendering · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur tradition. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page for the 102-year-living Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī Mahātmā.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī tradition · Gītā-Press Gorakhpur · highest modern Hindi reading

।।1.31।। हे केशव! मैं लक्षणों - (शकुनों) को भी विपरीत देख रहा हूँ और युद्ध में स्वजनोंको मारकर श्रेय (लाभ) भी नहीं देख रहा हूँ।

🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices

The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.

Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors

1.31 निमित्तानि omens? च and? पश्यामि I see? विपरीतानि adverse? केशव O Kesava? न not? च and? श्रेयः good? अनुपश्यामि (I) see? हत्वा killing? स्वजनम् our peope? आहवे in battle.Commentary Kesava means he who has fine or luxuriant hair.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)

1.31 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.

Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship

1.30 1.34 Na ca sreyah, etc., upto mahikrte. Those who are wrongly conceived as object of slaying, with the individualizing idea that 'these are my teachers etc.'8 would necessarily generate sin. Similarly, the act of slaying even of those deserving to be slain in the battle-if undertaken with the idea that 'This battle is to be fought for the apparent results like pleasures, happiness etc.'- then it generates sin necessarily. This idea lurks in the objection [of Arjuna]. That is why a reply is going to be given [by Bhagavat] as 'You must undertake actions simply as your own duty, and not with an individualizing idea'.

Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching

।।1.31।। No commentary.

🪷 Hindi Vyākhyā · हिन्दी व्याख्या

Pūjya Swami Rāmsukhdās ji's Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · one of the great modern Hindi vyākhyās of the Gītā · direct, pure, deeply Vedāntic · the modern Sanātana-jāgaraṇa. (→ Full Mahāpurusha-detail page · 1904-2005 · Corner 1 Mādhurya operational anchor · whose 6-lakṣaṇa-śaraṇāgati IS Constitutional Principle 24.)

🪷 Swami Rāmsukhdās · Sādhaka-Sañjīvanī · Hindi vyākhyā · the modern bilingual anchor

।।1.31।। व्याख्या--'निमित्तानि च पश्यामि विपरीतानि केशव'--हे केशव! मैं शकुनोंको (टिप्पणी प0 22.2) भी विपरीत ही देख रहा हूँ। तात्पर्य है कि किसी भी कार्यके आरम्भमें मनमें जितना अधिक उत्साह (हर्ष) होता है, वह उत्साह उस कार्यको उतना ही सिद्ध करनेवाला होता है। परन्तु अगर कार्यके आरम्भमें ही उत्साह भङ्ग हो जाता है, मनमें संकल्प-विकल्प ठीक नहीं होते, तो उस कार्यका परिणाम अच्छा नहीं होता। इसी भावसे अर्जुन कह रहे हैं कि अभी मेरे शरीरमें अवयवोंका शिथिल होना, कम्प होना, मुखका सूखना आदि जो लक्षण हो रहे हैं, ये व्यक्तिगत शकुन भी ठीक नहीं हो रहे हैं (टिप्पणी प0 22.3) इसके सिवाय आकाशसे उल्कापात होना, असमयमें ग्रहण लगना, भूकम्प होना, पशु-पक्षियोंका भयंकर बोली बोलना, चन्द्रमाके काले चिह्नका मिट-सा जाना, बादलोंसे रक्तकी वर्षा होना आदि जो पहले शकुन हुए हैं, वे भी ठीक नहीं हुए हैं। इस तरह अभीके और पहलेके--इन दोनों शकुनोंकी ओर देखता हूँ, तो मेरेको ये दोनों ही शकुन विपरीत अर्थात् भावी अनिष्टके सूचक दीखते हैं। 'न च श्रेयोऽनुपश्यामि हत्वा स्वजनमाहवे'--युद्धमें अपने कुटुम्बियोंको मारनेसे हमें कोई लाभ होगा--ऐसी बात भी नहीं है। इस युद्धके परिणाममें हमारे लिये लोक और परलोक--दोनों ही हितकारक नहीं दीखते। कारण कि जो अपने कुलका नाश करता है, वह अत्यन्त पापी होता है। अतः कुलका नाश करनेसे हमें पाप ही लगेगा ,जिससे नरकोंकी प्राप्ति होगी। इस श्लोकमें 'निमित्तानि पश्यामि' और 'श्रेयः अनुपश्यामि'--(टिप्पणी प0 23) इन दोनों वाक्योंसे अर्जुन यह कहना चाहते हैं कि मैं शुकुनोंको देखूँ अथवा स्वयं विचार करूँ, दोनों ही रीतिसे युद्धका आरम्भ और उसका परिणाम हमारे लिये और संसारमात्रके लिये हितकारक नहीं दीखता। सम्बन्ध-- जिसमें न तो शुभ शकुन दीखते हैं और न श्रेय ही दीखता है, ऐसी अनिष्टकारक विजयको प्राप्त करनेकी अनिच्छा अर्जुन आगेके श्लोकमें प्रकट करते हैं।

🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā

This is verse 31 of 47 in Chapter 1 · Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga (The Yoga of Arjuna's Despondency)
Chapter theme: The seeker's collapse at the threshold of dharma
Ṣaṭka grouping: TVAM-Ṣaṭka (BG 1-6 · the jīva)
Chapter hub: /arjuna-vishada
⭐ Mahābhārata anchor: this verse is also MBh 6.23.31 (Bhīṣma-Parva · the BG in its full narrative home)

Bhagavad-Gītā Detail Source-Anchor Spine

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📚 Cite this verse · Academic citation formats

APA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. (n.d.). Bhagavad-Gītā 1.31. Vidhyāmitra. Retrieved 2026-07-28, from https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/1/31

Chicago: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 1.31." Vidhyāmitra. Accessed 2026-07-28. https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/1/31.

MLA: Vyāsa Maharṣi. "Bhagavad-Gītā 1.31." Vidhyāmitra, 2026, https://vidhyamitra.com/bhagavad-gita/1/31.

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🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷

सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)