चिन्ताम् अपरिमेयां च प्रलयान्ताम् उपाश्रिताः । कामोपभोगपरमा एतावद् इति निश्चिताः ॥
cintām aparimeyāṃ ca pralayāntām upāśritāḥ | kāmopabhoga-paramā etāvad iti niścitāḥ ||
Immeasurable anxieties till death, sense-pleasure as the highest value, firmly certain that 'this is all there is.'
Word by word (3)
- cintām aparimeyāṃ ca pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
- — taking refuge in (upāśritāḥ) immeasurable (aparimeyā) anxieties/worries (cintām) that end only at death (pralaya-antā) — the āsurī is burdened by limitless fear-driven planning until they die
- kāmopabhoga-paramāḥ
- — for whom kāmopabhoga (enjoyment of desires/sensual pleasures) is the highest (paramā) — their ultimate value is sense-gratification
- etāvad iti niścitāḥ
- — firmly convinced (niścitāḥ) that 'this is all there is' (etāvat iti) — the philosophical closure of the materialist: sensory experience exhausts reality
Harassed by immeasurable anxieties that end only with death, regarding sensory enjoyment as the highest goal, firmly convinced that this is all there is;
A modern analogy
Imagine a hamster on a wheel: running, planning, acquiring, running again — the anxiety is immeasurable, the goal is always just ahead, and the conviction is 'I'm getting somewhere.' The wheel only stops at death. V11 describes this existential hamster-wheel as the āsurī's basic relationship with life.
V11-12 together paint the āsurī's relationship with time: V11 describes their anxiety-driven orientation toward death (cintā pralayāntā) and their sense-pleasure priority; V12 shows their instrumental planning to acquire resources for that pleasure. The portrait is not of lazy indulgence but of driven, anxious, purposeful pursuit of the wrong ultimate — a highly motivated but fundamentally misdirected life.
Pralayāntā (ending at death) is the temporal limit of the āsurī's horizon: they plan forward to death, not beyond. For the daivī character, pralaya (dissolution) is a minor interruption in the eternal — for the āsurī, it is the terminal point of all planning. Etāvad iti niścitāḥ (certain it's only this much) is the epistemological closure of V8's cosmological nihilism: if the world is only kāma-produced matter, then sense-pleasure IS the rational maximum.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
MISSING — SH Ch.16 V11 not indexed; Ganguli and Telang used as primary. [1]
Beset with immense cares ending only with death, regarding gratification of lust as the highest, and feeling sure that that is all; [4]
Harassed by immeasurable anxieties ending only with death, regarding the gratification of desires as the highest object, and confident that this is all. [9]
Cherishing boundless thoughts limited by death alone, and regarding the enjoyment of desires as the highest end, they are persuaded that that is all. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Arjuna sees his own people ready to die — and his body breaks before his mind can argue.
Duryodhana catalogues the Pandava heroes — naming his fears, one by one.
Those who respected you will assume you left out of fear — and in their eyes, you will shrink from hero to coward.
Intellect, wisdom, patience, truth, calm, restraint, joy, pain, birth, death, fear, fearlessness — all arise from Me.
The sound of righteous forces pierces the hearts of those who know they are on the wrong side.
Your enemies will mock your strength — what pain is greater than that?