अर्जुन उवाच । अथ केन प्रयुक्तोऽयं पापं चरति पूरुषः । अनिच्छन्नपि वार्ष्णेय बलादिव नियोजितः ॥
arjuna uvāca | atha kena prayukto 'yaṃ pāpaṃ carati pūruṣaḥ | anicchann api vārṣṇeya balād iva niyojitaḥ ||
Arjuna asks: what force drives a person to sin even when they know better and don't want to?
Word by word (3)
- kena prayuktaḥ pāpaṃ carati
- — impelled by what does a person commit sin? · Kena = by what? (instrumental of ka, what/who). Prayukta = impelled, driven, set in motion (pra+yukta, from yuj). Pāpaṃ carati = commits sin, does wrong. Arjuna is asking the fundamental question of moral psychology: what is the internal force that drives a person to act against their own conscience?
- anicchann api balād iva niyojitaḥ
- — even unwilling — as if forced by power · Anicchant = not desiring, unwilling (a-icchant, from iṣ, to desire). Api = even. Balāt = by force (from bala, strength/force). Iva = as if, like. Niyojita = compelled, directed. The crucial insight in Arjuna's question: people act against their own will, as if an external force were compelling them. He recognizes the experienced reality of moral weakness.
- atha kena prayuktaḥ / pūruṣaḥ
- — atha = now then (the particle of transition — Arjuna has absorbed Ch.3 V1-35 and now frames the diagnostic question); kena prayuktaḥ = impelled by what (kena = by what?; prayuktaḥ = set-in-motion, driven; pra + yuj = to yoke/drive forward; the question is about the impelling force behind sin); pūruṣaḥ = a person (any human being — the question is universal, not just about Arjuna); Arjuna's kena reveals he already understands that sin is not freely chosen but driven by a force
Arjuna said: But impelled by what does a person commit sin, O Krishna, even against their will — as if forced by some power?
A modern analogy
Everyone knows this experience: you decide not to check your phone, then check it. You resolve not to snap at someone, then snap. You know the right thing and do the wrong one anyway. Arjuna is asking what every serious person has asked: what is that force?
Take with you
- This is one of the most honest questions in the Gita — Arjuna names the felt experience of compulsion.
- The question assumes knowledge is insufficient alone — something else overrides the knowing.
- Krishna's answer (V37) will name the force precisely: kāma (desire) and krodha (anger) born of rajas.
- Recognizing the compulsive force is the first step — you can't work with what you haven't named.
V36 is the only Arjuna-speaker verse in Chapter 3 after the opening (V1-2), and it arrives at precisely the right moment — after the teachings on gunas, svadharma, and rāga-dveṣa. Arjuna has been listening to an increasingly sophisticated account of why people act badly (V27-35) and now asks the direct practical question: what specifically is the force? His phrasing is important: anicchann api (even without wanting to) balād iva (as if by force). He is not asking about deliberate evil but about the compulsion that overrides conscious choice. This is the question of akrasia (weakness of will) in Western philosophy — Aristotle's puzzlement about why people act against their own better judgment. Krishna's answer in V37 is one of the Gita's most psychologically precise.
Public-domain translations (5) compare all →
Arjuna said: But impelled by what does a man commit sin, even unwillingly, O Varshneya, as if constrained by force? [1]
Arjuna said: But impelled by what does a man commit sin, even though unwilling, O Varshneya, constrained as it were by force? [4]
Arjuna said: What is that which drives a man to commit sin, O Varshneya, as if compelled by force, against his own will? [6]
Then tell me, Krishna! what is this that drives A man to sin, even against his will; Forced by some power within? [7]
Arjuna said: But then by what impelled does a man commit sin, O descendant of Vrishni! even though unwilling, as if constrained by force? [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
The enemy is desire and anger, born of rajas — all-devouring, all-sinful. Know this as your internal enemy.
Withstand desire and anger's force here in this body — that one is yoked, that one is happy.
Steady wisdom begins here: when all desires fall away and the Self finds fullness in itself alone.
All desires pour into the sage like rivers into the ocean — the ocean stays unmoved. That is peace.
Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
Brahman-become, serene, neither grieving nor desiring, equal to all beings — he attains supreme bhakti to Me.