A question · reflective in mood · a little context helps
“Half-finished striving can feel like total ruin.”
O mighty-armed one, does a person who has fallen from both sides, like a torn cloud, perish without support, deluded on the path of the supreme reality?
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallywhether? · fallen from both sides · torn cloud · like · perishes · without support · O mighty-armed one · deluded · of the supreme reality · on the path
Arjuna asks whether a person who fails in both worldly life and spiritual practice is lost completely, like a torn cloud blown apart.
Arjuna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Dhyana Yoga" (The Yoga of Meditation).
Verse 38 sits in Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita — Dhyana Yoga, "The Yoga of Meditation". The chapter has 47 verses in total.
A farmer gives up paddy for a new orchard, and the first two seasons fail. Arjuna's torn cloud is that fear: the old crop is gone and the new one has yet to take hold.
Did you like this verse?
Arjuna pictures the failed yogi as a torn cloud, cut off from both worldly support and liberation.
What this verse means
Arjuna asks whether a person who fails in both worldly life and spiritual practice is lost completely, like a torn cloud blown apart.
Context & commentary
Arjuna is already shaken by the thought of meditation and duty pulling in opposite directions. He asks Krishna whether someone who slips from both worldly support and the path to liberation simply disappears like a broken cloud. This keeps the question open for Krishna's answer.
What it looks like today
A farmer gives up paddy for a new orchard, and the first two seasons fail. Arjuna's torn cloud is that fear: the old crop is gone and the new one has yet to take hold.
“It is the fear of trying and still losing everything that makes the mind tremble.”
Explore related themes: dhyana yoga (13 verses)