📿 Shloka Collection

Atha Kena Prayukto'yam

Gita 3.36 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 — Karma Yoga
अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुषः ।
अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजितः ॥
Atha kena prayukto'yam papam charati purushah
Anichchhann api Varshneya balad iva niyojitah
अथ
now, then
केन प्रयुक्तः
impelled by what
अयम्
this person
पापम् चरति
commits sin
पूरुषः
a person
अनिच्छन् अपि
even unwillingly
वार्ष्णेय
O Varshneya (Krishna, of the Vrishni clan)
बलात् इव
as if by force
नियोजितः
driven, compelled

Arjuna voices something every human being has felt. You know what is right. You even want to do what is right. And yet something inside drags you the other way, almost as if by force. What is that power? Where does it live? Who is pulling the strings?

The phrase 'anichchhann api' (even without wanting to) is painfully honest. This is not about deliberate wrongdoing. It is about the baffling experience of acting against your own better judgment. Arjuna gives this inner hijacker a vivid image: it is as though someone is forcing you.

This question follows naturally from 3.33-3.34. After hearing about the power of prakriti and the danger of raga and dvesha, Arjuna wants to name the enemy.

Krishna's answer comes in 3.37: it is kama (desire) and krodha (anger).

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