Sanskrit
गुरूनहत्वा हि महानुभावान् श्रेयो भोक्तुं भैक्ष्यमपीह लोके । हत्वाऽर्थकामांस्तु गुरूनिहैव भुञ्जीय भोगान्रुधिरप्रदिग्धान् ॥
gurūn ahatvā hi mahānubhāvān śreyo bhoktuṃ bhaikṣyam apīha loke hatvārthakāmāṃs tu gurūn ihaiva bhuñjīya bhogān rudhirapradigdhān
Translation
Better in this world to eat even the beggar's crust than to slay these most noble Gurus. Slaying these Gurus, our well-wishers, I should taste of blood-besprinkled feasts.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna would rather live as a beggar than kill his teachers, even for a kingdom. The image is deliberately visceral — “blood-besprinkled feasts” — and it sets the emotional stakes the rest of the chapter’s philosophical argument has to actually meet, not merely out-argue. The word he reaches for is śreyas — “better,” the good as against the merely pleasant — the same term the Gita keeps using for the higher of two options (it returns at BG 2.7 and BG 3.35). Arjuna is not refusing to think in terms of the good; he has simply computed it the opposite way from Krishna.
Study deeper
Word by word
- gurūnगुरून्
- the elders, teachers
- ahatvāअहत्वा
- not having killed
- hiहि
- indeed
- mahānubhāvānमहानुभावान्
- the greatly honoured, the noble
- śreyoश्रेयो
- better
- bhoktuṃभोक्तुं
- to eat, to enjoy
- bhaikṣyamभैक्ष्यं
- food got by begging
- apīha lokeअपीह लोके
- even here in this world (api + iha + loke)
- hatvārthakāmāṃsहत्वार्थकामांस्
- having killed [these gurus who are] seekers of wealth and pleasure (hatvā + artha-kāmān)
- tuतु
- but
- gurūnगुरून्
- the elders
- ihaivaइहैव
- here itself (iha + eva)
- bhuñjīyaभुञ्जीय
- I would enjoy
- bhogānभोगान्
- enjoyments, pleasures
- rudhirapradigdhānरुधिरप्रदिग्धान्
- smeared with blood (rudhira-pradigdhān)
Commentary
Site Commentary
“Blood-besprinkled feasts” is not a philosopher’s objection, it’s a visceral image chosen to make the stakes unignorable. Arjuna isn’t just disagreeing with a course of action — he’s setting a bar for what any answer will have to clear: not merely logically sound, but capable of standing up next to that image without flinching. The rest of the chapter has to earn its way past this line, not around it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you object to something on principle, try to also name the vivid, specific image behind your objection — a sharp concrete picture keeps whatever answer you eventually accept honest, instead of letting a merely logical argument slide past the real stakes.
Professional
- When you push back on a decision, put the worst concrete consequence into the room explicitly, not just the abstract risk — a vivid specific keeps the eventual justification honest instead of letting a technically sound argument quietly outrun the real cost.
Family & Social
- When you're upset about a choice someone close to you is making, say the specific, vivid version of what worries you, not just the general objection — it keeps whatever gets decided honest about what's actually at stake.
Ask yourself
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