Display
Devanagari is shown only when this page stored it. Harvard-Kyoto and ASCII are generated from the IAST verse.
Vanisource / Original texts
Bhagavad-gītā 2.34
DonateSave this passage to keep a private note on this device. Notes are not sent to Vedawiki.
Cite
The source revision identifier is retained; its timestamp was not separately queried.
Source illustrations remain online: their exact image bytes were verified on 26 October 2026. Linked shared-image description pages have no local Vanisource page record and are not stored here; original links are retained.
Source navigation
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 34
- अकीर्तिं चापि भूतानि कथयिष्यन्ति तेऽव्ययाम् ।
- सम्भावितस्य चाकीर्तिर्मरणादतिरिच्यते ॥३४॥
- akīrtiṁ cāpi bhūtāni
- kathayiṣyanti te 'vyayām
- sambhāvitasya cākīrtir
- maraṇād atiricyate
akīrtiminfamy—infamy; caalso—also; apiover and above—over and above; bhūtāniall people—all people; kathayiṣyantiwill speak—will speak; teof you—of you; avyayāmforever—forever; sambhāvitasyafor a respectable man—for a respectable man; caalso—also; akīrtiḥill fame—ill fame; maraṇātthan death—than death; atiricyatebecomes more than—becomes more than.
People will always speak of your infamy, and for one who has been honored, dishonor is worse than death.
Both as friend and philosopher to Arjuna, Lord Kṛṣṇa now gives His final judgement regarding Arjuna's refusal to fight. The Lord says, "Arjuna, if you leave the battlefield, people will call you a coward even before your actual flight. And if you think that people may call you bad names but that you will save your life by fleeing the battlefield, then My advice is that you'd do better to die in the battle. For a respectable man like you, ill fame is worse than death. So, you should not flee for fear of your life; better to die in the battle. That will save you from the ill fame of misusing My friendship and from losing your prestige in society."
So, the final judgement of the Lord was for Arjuna to die in the battle and not withdraw.