Chapter 1 · Verse 38 · Arjuna Visada Yoga
Bhagavad Gita 1.38
Sanskrit
यद्यप्येते न पश्यन्ति लोभोपहतचेतसः। कुलक्षयकृतं दोषं मित्रद्रोहे च पातकम्।।1.38।।
Transliteration
yady apy ete na paśhyanti lobhopahata-chetasaḥ kula-kṣhaya-kṛitaṁ doṣhaṁ mitra-drohe cha pātakam
In plain words
When you want something badly enough—money, revenge, what you think you're owed—your mind stops working. You stop seeing the cost to the people you love, to your own peace, to who you actually are. The lesson for you: greed blinds you to the damage you're causing, and the cruelest part is that you won't even recognize it's happening until everything breaks. The way out is to notice where desire has numbed your conscience, and choose to see clearly again.
हिंदी अर्थ
लोभ से मोहित हुए ये लोग कुल के नाश से होने वाले पाप और मित्र के साथ विश्वासघात के पाप को नहीं देख पाते हैं। भले ही वे इन बुराइयों को समझते नहीं हैं, लेकिन ये काम बहुत बड़े पाप हैं।
Word by Word
Arjuna names the deepest blindness: when greed darkens the intellect, we lose the very capacity to see sin itself. This is not mere moral failure—it is spiritual amnesia, where the atman's clarity vanishes beneath layers of desire.
The ancient rishis understood that those who silence their conscience through wealth and craving become incapable of recognizing the destruction they cause to family, friendship, and their own soul. When we feel tempted to justify harm for personal gain, we must pause and ask: have I already lost the ability to see clearly?
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Bhagavad Gita 1.38 — BG 1.38
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