अवाच्यवादांश्च बहून्वदिष्यन्ति तवाहिताः। निन्दन्तस्तव सामर्थ्यं ततो दुःखतरं नु किम्॥
avācya-vādāṃś ca bahūn vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ / nindantas tava sāmarthyaṃ tato duḥkhataraṃ nu kim
Your enemies will mock your strength — what pain is greater than that?
Word by word (4)
- avācya-vādāṃś ca bahūn
- — many unspeakable words
- vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ
- — your enemies will say · 'Ahitāḥ' — enemies, ill-wishers, those who do not wish you well. The mockery of enemies is the deepest wound to honor.
- nindantas tava sāmarthyam
- — deriding your very ability / mocking your power
- tato duḥkhataraṃ nu kim
- — what could be more painful than that?
'Your enemies will say many things that should not be said, mocking your very ability. What could be more painful than that?'
A modern analogy
It's one thing to be misunderstood by friends. It's another to be mocked by rivals — and to know the mockery is made possible by your own inaction. Krishna completes the social argument: friends misread you, peers lose respect, and enemies celebrate. The three layers of the honor argument are all named.
Take with you
- 'Avācya-vādān' — words that should not be spoken. The mockery of enemies is the deepest wound to honor.
- 'Tato duḥkhataraṃ nu kim' — what is more painful than that? A rhetorical question: the answer is nothing, for a warrior.
- V36 closes the three-verse honor argument (V34-36). The progression: disgrace (V34), contempt from peers (V35), mockery from enemies (V36).
V36 ends the social/reputational argument track (V31-36). The argument has moved from duty (V31-32) to consequence (V33) to honor (V34-36). All three are legitimate arguments at the conventional level — and all three are ultimately superseded by the Karma Yoga teaching (V38+), which transcends the honor-frame entirely.
Public-domain translations (3) compare all →
Your enemies will speak many words of ill omen, mocking your ability. What could be more painful than this? [4]
Your enemies also will say many things of you which should not be said, deriding your ability; what can be more painful than that? [6]
And your enemies, speaking much that should not be spoken, will condemn your power. What can be more painful than that? [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Die and win heaven. Conquer and enjoy the earth. Either way you gain — so rise and fight.
Immeasurable anxieties till death, sense-pleasure as the highest value, firmly certain that 'this is all there is.'
Sāttvic sukha: poison-like at first, nectar-like at the end — born of the clarity of Self-knowing intellect.
If from egotism you think 'I will not fight' — vain is this resolve; Prakṛti will compel you.
Bow down, arrows scattered, warrior collapsed — this is where the Gita begins.
Who measures others' joy and pain by the standard of their own — seeing the same everywhere — is the supreme yogi.