Chapter 9, Verse 3
अश्रद्दधानाः पुरुषा धर्मस्यास्य परन्तप | अप्राप्य मां निवर्तन्ते मृत्युसंसारवर्त्मनि ||९-३||
aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa . aprāpya māṃ nivartante mṛtyusaṃsāravartmani ||9-3||
Meaning
9.3 Those who have no faith in this Dharma (knowledge of the Self), O Parantapa (Arjuna), return to the path of this world of death without attaining Me.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Having praised the teaching, Krishna sounds a sober note. Those who are ashraddadhana — lacking shraddha, that living faith which is openness to truth — cannot grasp this dharma. Without faith the door stays shut, not because the truth withholds itself, but because the heart refuses entry.
The consequence is described starkly: such persons, failing to attain the Divine, return to mrityu-samsara-vartmani, the well-worn road of repeated death and rebirth. Shraddha here is not blind belief but a trusting receptivity that allows one to begin the inner work at all. The verse is not a threat but a diagnosis: where there is no faith, there can be no realisation, and life keeps circling its familiar grooves of gain, loss, and return.
💡 Key Takeaway
Without sincere faith the door to higher truth stays closed, and life keeps repeating its old patterns of striving and loss.
Related Verses
राजविद्या राजगुह्यं पवित्रमिदमुत्तमम् | प्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्म्यं सुसुखं कर्तुमव्ययम् ||९-२||
rājavidyā rājaguhyaṃ pavitramidamuttamam . pratyakṣāvagamaṃ dharmyaṃ susukhaṃ kartumavyayam ||9-2||
9.2 This is the kingl science, the kingly secret, the supreme purifier, realisable by direct intuitional knowledge, according to righteousness, very easy to perform and imperishable.
ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति | एवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्ना गतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते ||९-२१||
te taṃ bhuktvā svargalokaṃ viśālaṃ kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṃ viśanti . evaṃ trayīdharmamanuprapannā gatāgataṃ kāmakāmā labhante ||9-21||
9.21 They, having enjoyed the vast heaven, enter the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted; thus abiding by the injunctions of the ï1threeï1 (Vedas) and desiring (objects of) desires, they attain to the state of going and returning.
येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः | तेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् ||९-२३||
ye.apyanyadevatābhaktā yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ . te.api māmeva kaunteya yajantyavidhipūrvakam ||9-23||
9.23 Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me alone, O Arjuna, b the wrong method.