अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि। ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि॥
atha cet tvam imaṃ dharmyaṃ saṃgrāmaṃ na kariṣyasi / tataḥ svadharmam kīrtiṃ ca hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi
If you don't fight this righteous battle, you abandon your duty and honor — and invite the consequences.
Word by word (4)
- atha cet tvam imaṃ dharmyam
- — but if you do not fight this righteous
- saṃgrāmaṃ na kariṣyasi
- — battle
- tataḥ svadharmam kīrtiṃ ca
- — then abandoning your own duty and fame · The two losses named together: svadharmam (inner — the abandonment of your own nature) and kīrti (outer — the loss of reputation). Both are real consequences.
- hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi
- — you will incur sin / accrue pāpa
'But if you do not fight this righteous battle — then, having abandoned your own duty and your honor — you will incur sin.'
A modern analogy
Every professional who walks away from their duty at the critical moment carries something afterward — not just regret, but a kind of accumulated weight from having been in the right place at the right time and choosing not to act. Krishna is naming that weight: pāpa — sin, wrong action, the consequence of abandoning one's dharma when it mattered most.
Take with you
- 'Svadharmam kīrtiṃ ca hitvā' — abandoning both duty and fame together. The external consequence (loss of honor) accompanies the internal one (pāpa/sin).
- The structure is now explicit: if you fight = fulfill svadharma, gain honor; if you don't = abandon svadharma, incur pāpa.
- The word 'dharmyam' (righteous) is key: this is not any battle but a righteous one. The dharma argument only applies where the battle is genuinely just.
V33 is the negative formulation of the svadharma argument: the consequences of not acting. Where V31-32 gave positive reasons to fight, V33 gives the negative: abandonment of svadharma carries its own karma. The concept of pāpa (sin) here is not primarily moral condemnation but karmic consequence: actions against one's svadharma generate consequences that must be lived through. This is not punishment but the natural result of misalignment between one's nature and one's actions.
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
But if you do not fight this righteous war, then, having abandoned your own duty and fame, you shall incur sin. [4]
But if thou shunn'st this duty of thy birth, this fair fight — setting aside all duty and honor — thou shall take sin on thee. [7]
But if you do not fight this righteous battle, then abandoning your own duty and fame, you will incur sin. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
When order collapses, the most vulnerable members of society suffer first.
Dishonor lasts longer than death — and for the one who has been honored, disgrace is worse than dying.
More daivī qualities: ahiṃsā, satya, akrodha, tyāga, śānti, apaiśuna, dayā, aloluptva, mārdava, hrī, acāpala.
Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
The sound of righteous forces pierces the hearts of those who know they are on the wrong side.
Arjuna calls Duryodhana evil-minded — the last moment of moral clarity before grief clouds everything.