मातुलाः श्वशुराः पौत्राः श्यालाः सम्बन्धिनस्तथा। एतान्न हन्तुमिच्छामि घ्नतोऽपि मधुसूदन॥
mātulāḥ śvaśurāḥ pautrāḥ śyālāḥ sambandhinaś ca / etān na hantum icchāmi ghnato 'pi madhusūdana
I would rather be killed than kill them — a statement of love that goes beyond self-preservation.
Word by word (8)
- mātulāḥ
- — maternal uncles
- śvaśurāḥ
- — fathers-in-law
- pautrāḥ
- — grandsons
- śyālāḥ
- — brothers-in-law
- sambandhinaḥ
- — relatives / those connected by family ties
- etān na hantum icchāmi
- — I do not wish to kill these
- ghnataḥ api
- — even if they kill me · This is the key moral declaration: Arjuna would rather be killed than kill. This is not passive acceptance but a statement of what he values more than his own life.
- madhusūdana
- — O Madhusudana — Krishna (slayer of the demon Madhu)
'My maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law — all these connected to me by family bonds — I do not want to kill these people, O Madhusudana. Even if they kill me.'
A modern analogy
A parent who says: 'I would rather suffer the consequence than see my child suffer it.' A doctor who takes on the risk of infection rather than abandon a patient. The willingness to absorb harm rather than inflict it on loved ones is a form of love that deserves respect, even when the Gita ultimately argues it is incomplete.
What it does NOT mean
This is not cowardice or pacifism. Arjuna explicitly says 'even if they kill me' — he is not afraid of death. He is making a statement about what matters more than his own life: the lives of people he loves. This is a morally serious position, not a weak one. The Gita will engage with it seriously.
Take with you
- 'Even if they kill me' — Arjuna is willing to die. His problem is not fear of death but unwillingness to cause it to those he loves.
- Love that places another's life above your own is profound — the Gita doesn't dismiss it, it seeks to expand and deepen it.
- The complete list of relationships (V32-34) shows Arjuna's grief is not selective — he sees everyone in the web of connection.
Verse 34 culminates the list of beloved people Arjuna cannot bear to harm. His final statement — 'even if they kill me' (ghnato 'pi) — is philosophically important: it establishes that his refusal is not self-protective. He is not afraid of dying. He is afraid of killing them. This is the most morally sympathetic position Arjuna takes in the entire chapter, and many readers stop here with him. Commentators who read the Gita as an allegory (not advocating literal war) find in this verse the most powerful argument: Arjuna's willingness to die rather than harm others is the beginning of non-violence (ahiṃsā). But the Gita does not stop here. Krishna will argue that dharma-grounded action — even when it involves apparent harm — is different from harm arising from desire, anger, or ego. The question is not whether to harm but from where the action comes.
Advaita lens
Shankaracharya sees in this verse the beginning of true dispassion (vairāgya) — Arjuna's attachment to outcomes (winning the kingdom, surviving) has weakened. But it has been replaced by a different attachment: to the lives of those he loves. The teaching will loosen both attachments, leaving pure action grounded in wisdom and duty.
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
Maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and other relatives — I do not wish to kill these, O Madhusudana, even though they kill me. [4]
Uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and kinsmen — I do not desire to kill these even though killed by them, O Madhusudana. [6]
Maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and other relatives — I do not wish to slay these even though they slay me, O Madhusudana. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The soul does not slay, and cannot be slain — both the slayer and the slain have mistaken the soul for the body.
Your own imperfect path beats another's perfect path. Death in your own dharma is better. Another's dharma brings fear.
Better to die with clean hands than to win with blood on them.
Duryodhana lists his greatest champions — and every name carries its own tragic irony.
Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.