Bhagavad Gita 6.37
Spoken by Arjuna ☆ Key verse · Verse 37 of 47 · Arjuna's Journey
अर्जुन उवाच | अयतिः श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानसः | अप्राप्य योगसंसिद्धिं कां गतिं कृष्ण गच्छति ||३७||
arjuna uvāca | ayatiḥ śraddhayopeto yogāc calitamānasaḥ | aprāpya yogasaṃsiddhiṃ kāṃ gatiṃ kṛṣṇa gacchati || 37 ||
O Krishna — the faithful yogi who fell short of yoga's perfection through wandering mind: what is their destination?
Word by word (3)
- ayatiḥ śraddhayā upetaḥ yogāt calita-mānasaḥ
- — the one who is uncontrolled, though endowed with faith, whose mind has wandered from yoga · ayati = one who has no self-control, who has not striven properly (a-yati, the negative of yati = the one who makes effort, who is self-controlled). śraddhayā upetaḥ = endowed with faith (śraddhā = faith, trust, conviction; upeta = endowed with, possessing). yogāt calita-mānasaḥ = whose mind has wandered from yoga (calita = wandered, deviated; mānasa = mind). The portrait is precise: this person has faith (śraddhā — they believe in the path, they want it) but lacks the self-control (ayati) that V36 identified as necessary. Their mind has wandered from the practice. The question is: what is their fate?
- aprāpya yoga-saṃsiddhiṃ kāṃ gatiṃ kṛṣṇa gacchati
- — not having attained perfection in yoga — what destination does that person reach, O Krishna? · aprāpya = not having attained (a-prāpya, gerundive-negative). yoga-saṃsiddhi = perfection/completion of yoga (saṃsiddha = fully accomplished). kāṃ gatiṃ = what destination, what path (gati = going, destination, state after death). gacchati = goes to, reaches. The question is not casual — it is Arjuna's deepest existential concern. He is the 'uncontrolled but faithful' type: devoted to the path but struggling with self-control (V33-34). Is that person simply lost? V40-41's answer will be the chapter's most reassuring teaching.
- śraddhā + ayati (the tension)
- — faith present but self-control absent — the spiritual practitioner's central vulnerability · The pairing of śraddhā (faith — present) and ayati (uncontrolled — problem) defines a specific spiritual type: the sincere but struggling practitioner. Not the cynic who never tried, not the saint who succeeded — the one in between, who genuinely believes and genuinely fails to complete the path in this lifetime. This is the question every practitioner secretly fears: 'What if I die before I finish?' V37 asks it directly. V40-41's answer is the Gita's most compassionate teaching.
Arjuna asks: What happens to the person who is endowed with faith (they genuinely believe in the path) but lacks self-control — whose mind has wandered from yoga practice and who dies without having attained yoga's perfection? Are they simply lost?
A modern analogy
Someone begins a serious health program — they genuinely believe in it, they try consistently, but life gets complicated, their will slips, they make progress but not enough. Then they die before achieving the transformation they were working toward. What was the value of the effort? Arjuna asks this about the spiritual path, and Krishna's coming reassurance — that no doer of good is ever destroyed, and the fallen yogi is reborn in conditions that let the practice resume — answers it.
What it does NOT mean
This does NOT describe the person who gave up cynically or never really tried. It describes the sincere practitioner with genuine faith who struggles with self-control. The distinction is crucial: Krishna's coming reassurance applies specifically to the faith-endowed who failed at control, not to those who never had faith or who abandoned the path from cynicism.
Take with you
- This is the most personally relevant question in the chapter for most practitioners: nearly everyone is the 'faith-endowed but imperfectly controlled' type. Krishna's answer — that such a one is never destroyed and is reborn to continue — is crucial to know.
- Śraddhā (faith) is identified as the key distinguishing quality: the person who has faith and struggles is different from the person who has neither. Krishna's assurance applies because faith is present.
- This sets up one of the Gita's most compassionate teachings: the question is asked honestly, from genuine concern (Arjuna is describing himself), and the answer will eliminate the fear that honest striving without perfect attainment leads to disaster.
Public-domain translations (6) compare all →
Arjuna said: The one who lacks self-control, though endowed with faith — whose mind has wandered from yoga — not having attained perfection in yoga, O Krishna, what destination does that one reach? [1]
Though possessed of Shraddha but unable to control himself, with the mind wandering away from Yoga, what end does one, failing to gain perfection in Yoga, meet, O Krishna ? [4]
Arjuna said: He who is uncontrolled but possessed of faith, with mind wandering from Yoga, not having attained perfection in Yoga — what path doth he tread, O Krishna? [5]
Arjuna said: O Krishna! What is the lot of the man who has faith, but who has not yet attained to the full restraint of his passions, whose mind wanders from Yoga even though he practices it? [6]
Arjuna: O Krishna! what happens to the man who turns back from the path of Yoga, though with faith, whose faith was not yet mastered, who could not reach the goal? [7]
Arjuna said: O Krishna, what is the fate of him who is devoted but unable to control himself, with the mind wandering away from Yoga, who has not attained perfection in Yoga? [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Yoga is hard for the uncontrolled self — but for the self-controlled one striving by right means, it is attainable.
O Pārtha — no destruction for that one, neither here nor hereafter. For never does any doer of good come to an evil end.
After worlds of merit, the fallen yogi is reborn in a pure and prosperous family — conditions for resuming practice.
Fallen from both worlds, without support — does the wandering yogi simply perish, like a torn cloud, O mighty-armed?
Close all nine gates, hold mind in heart, fix prāṇa in the head — the body's yoga posture for final departure.
Your own mind is your best friend when mastered; your worst enemy when not.
Verse 37 of 47 · back to Chapter 6