Sanskrit
अज्ञश्चाश्रद्दधानश्च संशयात्मा विनश्यति । नायं लोकोऽस्ति न परो न सुखं संशयात्मनः ॥
ajñaś cāśraddadhānaś ca saṃśayātmā vinaśyati nāyaṃ loko 'sti na paro na sukhaṃ saṃśayātmanaḥ
Translation
But the ignorant, faithless, doubting self goeth to destruction; nor this world, nor that beyond, nor happiness, is there for the doubting self.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Verse 39’s positive case gets its negative mirror: the person without knowledge, without faith, and eaten by doubt, saṃśayātmā, is destroyed — denied this world, the next, and happiness in either. The compound saṃśaya-ātmā is pointed: doubt isn’t described as a mood passing through a person but as something that becomes their very selfhood when left unresolved, which is precisely the condition the chapter’s closing verses are about to prescribe surgery for. The verse targets saṃśaya — chronic, unresolved doubt — not honest questioning, which BG 4.34 actively prescribes (paripraśna). The difference between the two is whether the questioning is going somewhere; BG 4.42 is the cut that ends the paralytic kind.
Study deeper
Word by word
- ajñaś cāśraddadhānaś caअज्ञश् चाश्रद्दधानश् च
- the ignorant and the faithless (ajñaḥ + ca + aśraddadhānaḥ + ca)
- saṃśayātmā vinaśyatiसंशयात्मा विनश्यति
- the doubting soul perishes (saṃśaya-ātmā + vinaśyati)
- nāyaṃ loko 'sti na paroनायं लोको ऽस्ति न परो
- neither this world nor the next is his (na + ayam + lokaḥ + asti + na + paraḥ)
- na sukhaṃ saṃśayātmanaḥन सुखं संशयात्मनः
- nor happiness for the doubter (na + sukham + saṃśaya-ātmanaḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Line up the two verses and they mirror each other term for term: verse 39’s faith, mastery, and wisdom become this verse’s faithlessness, ignorance, and doubt; its swift peace becomes this verse’s ruin in both worlds. It isn’t a new topic opening — it’s the same three-part claim run backward, as if the text wanted the negative case to be exactly as structured as the positive one, not just its vague opposite.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- When you name the specific state you're working toward — steady faith, real mastery — also name its precise mirror-image failure, term for term, rather than a vague 'the opposite of that.' This verse pairs its negative case to the positive one exactly, feature by feature, which makes both far easier to actually recognize in yourself.
Professional
- When you define what 'good' looks like for a role or process, spell out the precise mirrored failure mode too — not a vague 'bad,' but the specific term-by-term opposite of each thing you named as good. A precisely defined failure state is what actually makes the good state recognizable in practice.
Family & Social
- When you tell someone close to you what you want a relationship to feel like, also name its exact mirror-image failure — not a vague 'not that,' but the specific opposite of each thing you actually want. Naming both sides with the same precision makes the goal something you can actually notice yourself drifting from.
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