Sanskrit
यदृच्छया चोपपन्नं स्वर्गद्वारमपावृतम् । सुखिनः क्षत्रियाः पार्थ लभन्ते युद्धमीदृशम् ॥
yadṛcchayā copapannaṃ svargadvāram apāvṛtam sukhinaḥ kṣatriyāḥ pārtha labhante yuddham īdṛśam
Translation
Happy the Kshattriyas, O Pârtha, who obtain such a fight, offered unsought as an open door to heaven.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna reframes the battle itself: for a kshatriya, a just war that arrives unsought — not provoked or manufactured — is a rare opportunity, not a burden. This sets up the next several verses’ argument by contrast: refusing an opportunity this good has costs of its own, which is what verses 33–36 spell out one by one. Yadṛcchayā — “by chance,” unbidden — is the hinge: a war one engineers is a different moral object from a war that lands on one’s doorstep already just. Krishna is claiming Arjuna’s is the second kind.
Study deeper
Word by word
- yadṛcchayāयदृच्छया
- of its own accord, unsought
- copapannaṃचोपपन्नं
- and come [to you] (ca + upapannam)
- svargadvāramस्वर्गद्वारं
- a door to heaven (svarga-dvāram)
- apāvṛtamअपावृतं
- flung open
- sukhinaḥसुखिनः
- fortunate
- kṣatriyāḥक्षत्रियाः
- the kṣatriyas
- pārthaपार्थ
- O Pārtha
- labhanteलभन्ते
- obtain
- yuddham īdṛśamयुद्धं ईदृशं
- a battle such as this (yuddham + īdṛśam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna doesn’t stop at making the positive case; verse 32 is the “upside” half of a two-part persuasion, and verses 33-36 immediately supply the “downside” half — what’s lost by refusing. Stating a genuine opportunity and its foregone cost as two separate arguments, rather than folding them into one, is a deliberate strategy: some people move on hope, others on loss-aversion, and Krishna isn’t willing to bet on which one will land for Arjuna.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're trying to talk yourself into a hard but right decision, make both cases explicitly — what you gain by choosing it, and separately, what you lose by not choosing it. Relying on only one framing may not be enough to move you.
Professional
- When pitching a change to a team that's on the fence, present the upside case and the cost-of-inaction case as two distinct arguments rather than blending them — different people respond to opportunity framing and loss framing differently, and you don't know which will land.
Family & Social
- When persuading someone close to you toward a decision that's good for them, offer both what they stand to gain and what they stand to lose by not acting, as two separate points — don't assume one framing will be enough.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.