Verse 1.35

एतान्न हन्तुमिच्छामि घ्नतोऽपि मधुसूदन ।

अपि त्रैलोक्यराज्यस्य हेतोः किं नु महीकृते ॥

1.35

Transliteration

etānna hantumicchāmi ghnato'pi madhusūdana |

api trailokyarājyasya hetoḥ kiṃ nu mahīkṛte ||

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · @indic-transliteration/sanscript 1.3.3

Translation

These I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, O Krishna, even for the sake of dominion over the three worlds; leave alone killing them for the sake of the earth.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

these
not
to kill
I wish
though they kill me
even
O Madhusudana

even
of rule over the three worlds
for the sake
how much less
then
for the earth

By Sanskrit System · Machine draft · claude-opus-5-5 · 2026-11-08

Explanation

Arjuna states his refusal in its strongest form. Even if they kill him, he will not kill them, not for the sovereignty of the three worlds, much less for an earthly kingdom. The three worlds are earth, the intermediate space and heaven, the whole of the cosmos as epic thought pictured it. Calling Krishna Madhusudana, slayer of Madhu, again sets the divine destroyer of demons against Arjuna's refusal to destroy his kin. The verse shows that his resolve not to fight is total, not a bargaining position.