📿 Shloka Collection

Na Kankshe Vijayam

Gita 1.32 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 1 — Arjuna Vishada Yoga
न काङ्क्षे विजयं कृष्ण न च राज्यं सुखानि च ।
किं नो राज्येन गोविन्द किं भोगैर्जीवितेन वा ॥
Na kankshe vijayam Krishna na cha rajyam sukhani cha,
Kim no rajyena Govinda kim bhogair jivitena va.
not
काङ्क्षे
I desire
विजयम्
victory
कृष्ण
O Krishna
राज्यम्
kingdom
सुखानि
pleasures
किम्
what use
नः
for us
गोविन्द
O Govinda (Krishna)
भोगैः
enjoyments
जीवितेन
life itself

Something breaks open in Arjuna here. He tells Krishna plainly: I do not want victory. I do not want a kingdom. I do not want any of its pleasures. O Govinda, what will we do with a kingdom? What will we do with enjoyments, or even with life itself?

Consider the weight of this. The Pandavas endured thirteen years of exile for this kingdom. Krishna himself went as an ambassador to negotiate peace — for this kingdom. And now, standing at the threshold of reclaiming it, Arjuna pushes it all away. The price is too high. The kingdom costs the blood of his own people.

He calls Krishna 'Govinda' — the protector of cows and senses. In this desperate moment, Arjuna unknowingly calls upon the very one who sustains all life, as if pleading: You protect everyone, now protect me from this impossible choice.

This verse captures Arjuna's central dilemma in its sharpest form: everything he fought to win now seems worthless, because the people he wanted to share it with stand on the other side, about to die. This question will deepen in the verses that follow.

Tradition sometimes calls this kind of renunciation 'moha-born vairagya' — detachment born from grief rather than wisdom. Krishna will later clarify that true detachment comes from knowledge, not from fear or sorrow.

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