Verse 3.24

उत्सीदेयुरिमे लोका न कुर्यां कर्म चेदहम् ।

सङ्करस्य च कर्ता स्यामुपहन्यामिमाः प्रजाः ॥

3.24

Transliteration

utsīdeyurime lokā na kuryāṃ karma cedaham |

saṅkarasya ca kartā syāmupahanyāmimāḥ prajāḥ ||

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

Translation

These worlds would perish if I did not perform action; I should be the author of confusion of castes and destruction of these beings.

From the owner's sheet · +1 more

Word by word

would perish
these
worlds
not
should do
action
if
I

of confusion
and
the cause
I would be
I would destroy
these
people

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

Explanation

Krishna completes the thought. If he ceased to act, the worlds would collapse, and he would be responsible for disorder and the ruin of beings. The word saṅkara, confusion or mixture, echoes Arjuna's fear in the first chapter that war would bring disorder to society. Krishna turns the argument around: it is not action but the abandonment of rightful action that produces chaos. Arjuna worried that fighting would destroy social order; Krishna suggests that refusing his duty would be the greater threat to it.