Sanskrit
एवमुक्त्वा हृषीकेशं गुडाकेशः परन्तपः । न योत्स्य इति गोविन्दमुक्त्वा तूष्णीं बभूव ह ॥
evam uktvā hṛṣīkeśaṃ guḍākeśaḥ parantapaḥ na yotsya iti govindam uktvā tūṣṇīṃ babhūva ha
Translation
Gudâkesha, conqueror of his foes, having thus addressed Hrishîkesha and said to Govinda, "I will not fight!", became silent.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna’s refusal is total and final, at least for the moment: “I will not fight,” followed by silence. Sanjaya’s narration marks the end of the crisis chapter 1 built up to — and the silence is the space Krishna’s teaching, starting at verse 11, will fill. The epithets are pointed: Arjuna is called Guḍākeśa, conqueror of sleep, in the very line where his discernment has gone dark; Krishna is Hṛṣīkeśa, master of the senses, just before he begins a teaching whose practical core is exactly sense-mastery (BG 2.58–BG 2.61).
Study deeper
Word by word
- evam uktvāएवं उक्त्वा
- having spoken thus (evam + uktvā)
- hṛṣīkeśaṃहृषीकेशं
- to Hṛṣīkeśa — Krishna, lord of the senses
- guḍākeśaḥगुडाकेशः
- Guḍākeśa — Arjuna, 'conqueror of sleep'
- parantapaḥपरन्तपः
- scorcher of the foe
- na yotsya itiन योत्स्य इति
- 'I will not fight,' so saying (na + yotsye + iti)
- govindamगोविन्दं
- to Govinda — Krishna
- uktvāउक्त्वा
- having said
- tūṣṇīṃतूष्णीं
- silent
- babhūva haबभूव ह
- became (babhūva + ha)
Commentary
Site Commentary
“I will not fight” is followed immediately by silence — not another argument, not a plea, just tūṣṇīm, quiet. That silence is structurally significant: it’s the one moment in the whole dialogue where Arjuna stops generating reasons, and it’s precisely into that gap, not into an ongoing argument, that Krishna’s teaching gets to arrive starting at verse 11.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you've said your piece and run out of further argument, let yourself actually go quiet instead of manufacturing another point — genuine silence, not more talking, is often what makes room for you to actually hear a different perspective.
Professional
- After you've made your strongest case in a disagreement, stop talking and let the silence sit — continuing to generate arguments past your best one usually signals anxiety, not conviction, and it crowds out the space where you might actually hear the counter-case.
Family & Social
- When an argument with someone close to you has run its course, resist the urge to fill the silence with one more point — a genuine pause is often what lets the other person's response actually land, instead of getting talked over.
Ask yourself
A few ways to take this verse past reading. Ticks and the note stay in this browser.