Sanskrit
कच्चिन्नोभयविभ्रष्टश्छिन्नाभ्रमिव नश्यति । अप्रतिष्ठो महाबाहो विमूढो ब्रह्मणः पथि ॥
kaccin nobhayavibhraṣṭaś chinnābhram iva naśyati apratiṣṭho mahābāho vimūḍho brahmaṇaḥ pathi
Translation
Fallen from both, is he destroyed like a rent cloud, unsteadfast, O mighty-armed, deluded in the path of the Eternal?
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna sharpens verse 37’s question into its worst-case form: does such a person fall between two worlds entirely, losing both the fruits of ordinary life — having renounced them for yoga — and the goal of yoga itself, never having completed it? The “rent cloud” image is his own, not Krishna’s — something that dissolves and leaves nothing behind. Ubhaya-vibhraṣṭa — “fallen from both [sides]” — names the yoga-bhraṣṭa’s dreaded position: no worldly gain, no spiritual arrival. Krishna’s whole reply is the denial of the chinna-abhram, the cloud that just disperses.
Study deeper
Word by word
- kaccin nobhayavibhraṣṭaśकच्चिन् नोभयविभ्रष्टश्
- does he not, fallen from both (kaccit + na + ubhaya-vibhraṣṭaḥ)
- chinnābhram iva naśyatiछिन्नाभ्रं इव नश्यति
- perish like a scattered cloud (chinna-abhram + iva + naśyati)
- apratiṣṭho mahābāhoअप्रतिष्ठो महाबाहो
- without foothold, O mighty-armed (apratiṣṭhaḥ + mahā-bāho)
- vimūḍho brahmaṇaḥ pathiविमूढो ब्रह्मणः पथि
- bewildered on the path of Brahman (vimūḍhaḥ + brahmaṇaḥ + pathi)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Krishna never suggested anything like total dissolution — that image is Arjuna’s own invention, extrapolated from an anxious “what if” rather than anything Krishna actually said. It’s a familiar shape of worry: taking a real, modest uncertainty (what happens to incomplete effort) and imagining its most catastrophic possible ending, well past anything the actual evidence supports.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're anxious about an unfinished effort, notice if you've quietly upgraded a real but modest uncertainty into a worst-case catastrophe your own mind invented — check what's actually been said or shown before assuming the rent-cloud outcome.
Professional
- When a project stalls partway and you start fearing total failure, separate what's actually been confirmed (a delay, a gap) from the catastrophic story you're adding on top — most stalled efforts aren't headed for the worst-case ending your anxiety supplies.
Family & Social
- If a strain in a relationship has you fearing it's beyond repair, check whether that's based on something actually said or done, or a worst case your own worry constructed — the imagined catastrophe is usually worse than the real uncertainty underneath it.
Ask yourself
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