Sanskrit
अयतिः श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानसः । अप्राप्य योगसंसिद्धिं कां गतिं कृष्ण गच्छति ॥
ayatiḥ śraddhayopeto yogāc calitamānasaḥ aprāpya yogasaṃsiddhiṃ kāṃ gatiṃ kṛṣṇa gacchati
Translation
He who is unsubdued but who possesseth faith, with the mind wandering away from yoga, failing to attain perfection in yoga, what path doth he tread, O Krishna?
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna raises a new and different question from verses 33–34’s practical doubt — not “can the mind be tamed” but “what happens to someone who has faith and tries, but doesn’t finish.” This is the question the rest of the chapter answers, and it introduces a pastoral concern the text hasn’t addressed anywhere in the first five and a half chapters: sincere but incomplete practice. The case is specific: śraddhayā upeta (has faith) but ayati (doesn’t push through). Arjuna is asking about the earnest under-achiever — himself, perhaps — and BG 6.40–BG 6.45 is the unusually gentle answer.
Study deeper
Word by word
- ayatiḥ śraddhayopetoअयतिः श्रद्धयोपेतो
- one who fails to strive, though endowed with faith (ayatiḥ + śraddhayā + upetaḥ)
- yogāc calitamānasaḥयोगाच् चलितमानसः
- his mind wandering from yoga (yogāt + calita-mānasaḥ)
- aprāpya yogasaṃsiddhiṃअप्राप्य योगसंसिद्धिं
- not having attained perfection in yoga (aprāpya + yoga-saṃsiddhim)
- kāṃ gatiṃ kṛṣṇa gacchatiकां गतिं कृष्ण गच्छति
- what course does he go, O Krishna (kām + gatim + kṛṣṇa + gacchati)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Arjuna’s question assumes something worth pausing on: that faith and follow-through are separable, that a person can genuinely believe in a path and still fail to execute it, without that gap being read as hypocrisy or a lack of real conviction. The text takes this as a normal case deserving its own answer, not a moral failure needing correction first.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- If you sincerely believe in a habit or goal but keep failing to follow through, don't read that gap as proof your belief wasn't real — belief and execution are separable, and this verse treats the gap as a normal case worth addressing directly, not a character flaw.
Professional
- When a team member is genuinely committed to a process but keeps falling short of executing it, treat that as a normal execution gap to solve, not evidence their commitment was fake — conflating the two just adds shame without fixing anything.
Family & Social
- If someone close to you keeps failing to follow through on something they clearly do care about, resist reading the gap as proof they don't really mean it — sincere intention and consistent execution are different things, and only one of them is actually missing.
Ask yourself
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