Sanskrit
ये त्वेतदभ्यसूयन्तो नानुतिष्ठन्ति मे मतम् । सर्वज्ञानविमूढांस्तान्विद्धि नष्टानचेतसः ॥
ye tv etad abhyasūyanto nānutiṣṭhanti me matam sarvajñānavimūḍhāṃs tān viddhi naṣṭān acetasaḥ
Translation
Who carp at My teaching and act not thereon, senseless, deluded in all knowledge, know thou these mindless ones as fated to be destroyed.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The rhetoric turns sharply harsher than anything earlier in the chapter — “fated to be destroyed” is a much stronger consequence than the patient, non-unsettling tone of verses 26 and 29 toward the merely ignorant. The distinction being drawn is between people who simply haven’t yet understood, treated with restraint, and people who actively reject the teaching out of contempt, which the text treats as a different and graver failure. The operative word is abhyasūyantaḥ — carping, sneering — as against the honest partial knowledge of BG 3.29. Contempt, not ignorance, is what the verse condemns; the śraddhā of the previous verse is exactly what these people withhold.
Study deeper
Word by word
- ye tv etad abhyasūyantoये त्व् एतद् अभ्यसूयन्तो
- but those who, carping at this (ye + tu + etat + abhyasūyantaḥ)
- nānutiṣṭhanti me matamनानुतिष्ठन्ति मे मतं
- do not follow my teaching (na + anutiṣṭhanti + me + matam)
- sarvajñānavimūḍhāṃsसर्वज्ञानविमूढांस्
- deluded in all knowledge (sarva-jñāna-vimūḍhān)
- tān viddhi naṣṭān acetasaḥतान् विद्धि नष्टान् अचेतसः
- know them as lost and mindless (tān + viddhi + naṣṭān + acetasaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Verses 26 and 29 asked for patience toward not-yet-understanding; this verse offers none toward willful contempt. The chapter is drawing a line most of us blur in practice — “doesn’t get it” and “won’t engage with it” get treated as the same problem, met with the same weary explanation, when the text treats them as needing completely different responses.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Be honest with yourself about which category you're in when you resist a piece of feedback or advice — genuinely not understanding it yet deserves patience, but reflexively rejecting it without engaging deserves a more honest reckoning.
Professional
- Distinguish a teammate who genuinely hasn't grasped a technical decision yet from one who's dismissing it out of contempt without engaging — the first needs more explanation, the second needs a different conversation entirely, and treating them the same wastes effort on the wrong one.
Family & Social
- When someone in your family resists advice, notice whether they simply haven't understood it yet or are refusing to seriously engage with it at all — patience is the right response to one, not automatically to the other.
Ask yourself
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