Chapter 6, Verse 40
श्रीभगवानुवाच | पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते | न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद् दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति ||६-४०||
śrībhagavānuvāca . pārtha naiveha nāmutra vināśastasya vidyate . na hi kalyāṇakṛtkaścid durgatiṃ tāta gacchati ||6-40||
Meaning
The Blessed Lord said: O Arjuna, neither in this world, nor in the next world is there destruction for him; none, verily, who does good, O My son, ever comes to grief.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna's answer is among the most comforting promises in all of scripture, and the tenderness of his address — tata, 'my dear child' — reveals the love behind it. He sweeps away Arjuna's fear at once: for the sincere seeker there is no destruction, neither in this world (iha) nor the next (amutra). The scattered-cloud fate Arjuna dreaded simply does not exist.
The reason given is a spiritual law of profound reassurance: na hi kalyana-krit kashchit durgatim tata gacchati — no one who does good ever comes to a bad end. Every step toward the Divine, however incomplete, is a kalyana, an act of true welfare, and the moral order of the universe ensures that such good is never lost. Effort on the spiritual path is not like a worldly gamble that can leave one empty-handed. It accumulates, it endures, it carries forward. This single verse has consoled seekers for millennia, assuring every struggling aspirant that no sincere effort toward goodness is ever wasted.
💡 Key Takeaway
No sincere effort toward goodness is ever wasted — one who does good never comes to a bad end.
Related Verses
अर्जुन उवाच | अयतिः श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानसः | अप्राप्य योगसंसिद्धिं कां गतिं कृष्ण गच्छति ||६-३७||
arjuna uvāca . ayatiḥ śraddhayopeto yogāccalitamānasaḥ . aprāpya yogasaṃsiddhiṃ kāṃ gatiṃ kṛṣṇa gacchati ||6-37||
Arjuna said: He who is unable to control himself though he has the faith, and whose mind wanders away from Yoga, what end does he, having failed to attain perfection in Yoga, mee,t O Krishna?
कच्चिन्नोभयविभ्रष्टश्छिन्नाभ्रमिव नश्यति | अप्रतिष्ठो महाबाहो विमूढो ब्रह्मणः पथि ||६-३८||
kaccinnobhayavibhraṣṭaśchinnābhramiva naśyati . apratiṣṭho mahābāho vimūḍho brahmaṇaḥ pathi ||6-38||
O mighty-armed Kṛṣṇa, does not such a man, who is bewildered from the path of transcendence, fall away from both spiritual and material success and perish like a riven cloud, with no position in any sphere?
प्राप्य पुण्यकृतां लोकानुषित्वा शाश्वतीः समाः | शुचीनां श्रीमतां गेहे योगभ्रष्टोऽभिजायते ||६-४१||
prāpya puṇyakṛtāṃ lokānuṣitvā śāśvatīḥ samāḥ . śucīnāṃ śrīmatāṃ gehe yogabhraṣṭo.abhijāyate ||6-41||
Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for everlasting years, he who fell from Yoga is rorn in a house of the pure and wealthy.