Sanskrit
नष्टो मोहः स्मृतिर्लब्धा त्वत्प्रसादान्मयाऽच्युत । स्थितोऽस्मि गतसन्देहः करिष्ये वचनं तव ॥ ७३ ॥
naṣṭo mohaḥ smṛtir labdhā tvat-prasādān mayācyuta sthito'smi gata-sandehaḥ kariṣye vacanaṃ tava
Translation
Destroyed is my delusion. I have gained knowledge through Thy grace, O Immutable one. I am firm, my doubts have fled away. I will do according to Thy word.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna answers, and the answer resolves the crisis the whole text was written to address: delusion destroyed, knowledge gained through grace, doubts fled, “I will do Thy word” — kariṣye vacanaṃ tava. Read this against verse 59, where Krishna quoted Arjuna’s own “I will not fight” back to him, and against 1.46-47, where Arjuna actually dropped his bow in grief; this single line reverses both, converting the poem’s opening collapse into its closing resolve, spoken in Arjuna’s own voice for the first time at any length since chapter 2 began. Arjuna’s last words, and the poem’s true close: naṣṭo mohaḥ, smṛtir labdhā — “the delusion is gone, memory is regained” — and kariṣye vacanaṃ tava, “I will do your word.” The collapse of BG 1.47, where he let his bow slip and sank down, is answered here: he stands, gata-sandeha, doubt gone.
Study deeper
Word by word
- naṣṭo mohaḥनष्टो मोहः
- my delusion is destroyed (naṣṭaḥ + mohaḥ)
- smṛtir labdhāस्मृतिः लब्धा
- I have regained memory (smṛtiḥ + labdhā)
- tvat-prasādān mayācyutaत्वत्-प्रसादान् मयाच्युत
- by your grace, O Acyuta (tvat-prasādāt + mayā + acyuta)
- sthito'smi gata-sandehaḥ kariṣye vacanaṃ tavaस्थितोऽस्मि गत-सन्देहः करिष्ये वचनं तव
- I stand firm, doubt gone; I shall do your word (sthitaḥ + asmi + gata-sandehaḥ + kariṣye + vacanam + tava)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Arjuna’s own sequence matters: delusion destroyed, then knowledge, then doubt gone, and only after all three, the resolve to act. Action comes last here, downstream of internal resolution rather than a cause of it — the poem doesn’t have him act his way into conviction, it has conviction settle first and the willingness to act follow as its natural, almost unremarkable consequence.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Don't force yourself into action before your actual confusion has cleared, hoping the doing will create the clarity — this verse's own order suggests clarity settling first is what makes the following action feel natural rather than forced.
Professional
- Before pushing a team to commit to a decision, make sure the underlying confusion or doubt has genuinely been addressed first — commitment that follows real clarity tends to hold, while commitment forced ahead of it tends to need constant reinforcing.
Family & Social
- Before expecting someone to act differently in a relationship, make sure their actual doubts about the situation have been worked through first — asking for the changed behavior before the underlying clarity exists usually doesn't hold.
Ask yourself
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