Chapter 3, Verse 36
अर्जुन उवाच | अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुषः | अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजितः ||३-३६||
arjuna uvāca . atha kena prayukto.ayaṃ pāpaṃ carati pūruṣaḥ . anicchannapi vārṣṇeya balādiva niyojitaḥ ||3-36||
Meaning
3.36 Arjuna said But impelled by what does man commit sin, though against his wishes, O Varshneya (Krishna), constrained as it were, by force?
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Arjuna raises a question that haunts every honest conscience. If wisdom and right action are so clear, why does a person commit wrong even against his own will, as though dragged by some unseen force? We so often act against our better judgment — what is the hidden compulsion behind this?
The phrase balad iva niyojitah, 'as if compelled by force,' captures a universal human experience: the gap between knowing the good and doing it. Arjuna is not asking abstractly; he speaks for all who have resolved to act rightly yet found themselves swept into harmful action. The question is deeply self-aware and sincere, the mark of a soul genuinely seeking to understand its own inner workings. By naming this struggle so plainly, Arjuna opens the way for Krishna to identify the root enemy within — the answer that the chapter's final, climactic verses will provide.
💡 Key Takeaway
We often act against our own better judgment as if forced — recognizing this inner compulsion honestly is the first step to mastering it.
Related Verses
व्यामिश्रेणेव वाक्येन बुद्धिं मोहयसीव मे | तदेकं वद निश्चित्य येन श्रेयोऽहमाप्नुयाम् ||३-२||
vyāmiśreṇeva vākyena buddhiṃ mohayasīva me . tadekaṃ vada niścitya yena śreyo.ahamāpnuyām ||3-2||
3.2 With this apparently perplexing speech, Thou confusest, as it were, my understanding; therefore tell me that one way for certain by which I may attain bliss.