Sanskrit
यदहङ्कारमाश्रित्य न योत्स्य इति मन्यसे । मिथ्यैष व्यवसायस्ते प्रकृतिस्त्वां नियोक्ष्यति ॥ ५९ ॥
yad ahaṅkāram āśritya na yotsya iti manyase mithyaiṣa vyavasāyas te prakṛtis tvāṃ niyokṣyati
Translation
Entrenched in egoism, thou thinkest, "I will not fight;" to no purpose thy determination; nature will constrain thee.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna now names Arjuna’s exact posture directly: “entrenched in egoism, you think, ‘I will not fight.’” This is a near-verbatim echo of the position Arjuna staked out across chapter 1 and sealed at 1.46-47 when he dropped his bow — Krishna is quoting his student’s own resolve back to him, eighteen chapters later, in order to dismantle it in the very next verse. “Na yotsye, ‘I will not fight’” — Arjuna’s exact words at BG 2.9 — quoted back to him and called mithyā vyavasāya, “a false resolve,” because *prakṛti will compel you anyway” (BG 3.5). Withdrawal was never an available option.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yad ahaṅkāram āśrityaयद् अहङ्कारं आश्रित्य
- if, taking refuge in egoism (yat + ahaṅkāram + āśritya)
- na yotsya iti manyaseन योत्स्य इति मन्यसे
- you think 'I will not fight' (na + yotsye + iti + manyase)
- mithyaiṣa vyavasāyas teमिथ्यैष व्यवसायस् ते
- vain is this resolve of yours (mithyā + eṣaḥ + vyavasāyaḥ + te)
- prakṛtis tvāṃ niyokṣyatiप्रकृतिस् त्वां नियोक्ष्यति
- nature will compel you (prakṛtiḥ + tvām + niyokṣyati)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna doesn’t call Arjuna’s resolve wrong, he calls it mithyā — false, mistaken, a prediction that will fail to hold. The line isn’t moral condemnation, it’s a falsifiable claim about what will actually happen despite the resolve: nature will act regardless of what the will decides. Judged on those terms, the very next verse is written to be tested against reality, not against ideals.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you make a resolution that goes against your own deeper nature and history, treat your doubt about it less as a moral failing and more as a factual prediction worth testing — sometimes the honest question isn't 'is this resolve good' but 'will it actually hold.'
Professional
- When a team commits to a plan that ignores its own established capacity or incentives, flag it as a prediction likely to fail, not a values disagreement — the more useful pushback is often factual, not moral.
Family & Social
- When someone close to you makes a promise that runs against everything you know about their patterns, frame your doubt as a prediction rather than a judgment — 'I don't think this will hold' lands more honestly than 'you're wrong to want this.'
Ask yourself
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