Sanskrit
यच्चावहासार्थमसत्कृतोऽसि विहारशय्यासनभोजनेषु । एकोऽथवाऽप्यच्युत तत्समक्षम् तत्क्षामये त्वामहमप्रमेयम् ॥
yac cāvahāsārtham asatkṛto'si vihāraśayyāsanabhojaneṣu eko'thavāpy acyuta tatsamakṣam tat kṣāmaye tvām aham aprameyam
Translation
If jesting I irreverence showed to Thee, At play, reposing, sitting or at meals, Alone, O sinless One, or with my friends, Forgive my error, O Thou boundless One.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The apology gets almost domestically specific — play, rest, sitting, meals, alone or in company — an inventory of the small, unguarded moments of an actual friendship rather than a formal offense. That specificity is the point: Arjuna isn’t confessing to one dramatic act of disrespect, he’s realizing that ordinary intimacy itself was, in retrospect, a kind of presumption. Addressing him here as “aprameyam,” immeasurable, in the same breath as recalling shared meals, holds both truths open at once without resolving which one was the mistake — the friendship, or not knowing what the friendship actually was. The apology gets domestically specific — play, rest, meals, alone or in company — an inventory of an actual friendship’s unguarded moments. The realisation is not one dramatic offense but that ordinary intimacy itself was, in retrospect, a kind of presumption.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yac cāvahāsārtham asatkṛto'siयच् चावहासार्थं असत्कृतोऽसि
- and if you were slighted in jest (yat + ca + avahāsa-artham + asat-kṛtaḥ + asi)
- vihāraśayyāsanabhojaneṣuविहारशय्यासनभोजनेषु
- at play, in bed, seated, or at meals (vihāra-śayyā-āsana-bhojaneṣu)
- eko'thavāpy acyuta tatsamakṣamएकोऽथवाप्य् अच्युत तत्समक्षं
- alone, O Acyuta, or before others (ekaḥ + athavā + api + acyuta + tat-samakṣam)
- tat kṣāmaye tvām aham aprameyamतत् क्षामये त्वां अहं अप्रमेयं
- for that I beg your pardon, O immeasurable one (tat + kṣāmaye + tvām + aham + aprameyam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The apology explicitly covers both what happened alone and what happened in front of others — “eko’thavāpy… tatsamakṣam.” That detail matters: this isn’t regret about having been seen behaving too casually, it’s regret about the casualness itself, present or not. The discomfort survives the removal of an audience, which is usually the test for whether an apology is about the act or about the exposure.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- A useful test for whether you actually regret something or just regret being seen doing it: ask whether you'd still feel the discomfort if no one had witnessed it. Arjuna's apology here covers both cases — that's what makes it about the act itself, not the exposure.
Professional
- If you're second-guessing a casual remark or shortcut you took at work, check whether your discomfort survives the thought experiment of nobody having noticed — if it does, it's a real judgment call worth addressing; if not, that's a different problem.
Family & Social
- When you feel retroactively uneasy about how casually you treated someone close to you, ask whether that unease would still be there with no one around to have witnessed it — that distinction tells you whether you're apologizing for the behavior or for being caught.
Ask yourself
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