FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Bhagavad-gītā 1.40

अधर्माभिभवात्कृष्ण प्रदुष्यन्ति कुलस्त्रियः । स्त्रीषु दुष्टासु वार्ष्णेय जायते वर्णसङ्करः ॥ ४० ॥
adharmābhibhavāt kṛṣṇa
[adharmaabhibhavaat krishna]
praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ
[pradushyanti kula-striyah]
strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya
[streeshu dushtaasu vaarshneya]
jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ
[jaayate varna-sankarah]
Word-for-word
adharma — irreligion abhibhavāt — having become predominant kṛṣṇa — O Kṛṣṇa praduṣyanti — become polluted kula - striyaḥ — family ladies strīṣu — by the womanhood duṣṭāsu — being so polluted vārṣṇeya — O descendant of Vṛṣṇi jāyate — comes into being varṇa - saṅkaraḥ — unwanted progeny .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
adharmābhibhavāt kṛṣṇa
adharma
irreligion
abhibhavāt
having become predominant
kṛṣṇa
O Kṛṣṇa
praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ
praduṣyanti
become polluted
kula - striyaḥ
family ladies
strīṣu
by the womanhood
strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya
duṣṭāsu
being so polluted
vārṣṇeya
O descendant of Vṛṣṇi
jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ
jāyate
comes into being
varṇa - saṅkaraḥ
unwanted progeny .
Important Words
  • adharma — irreligion
    Same compound as v.39, now in a longer form: *adharma-abhibhavāt*. Arjuna is tracking the cause-and-effect. *Adharma overpowers — therefore* women are polluted — *therefore* mixed populations — and so on. The Gītā does not contest this dharma-physics.
  • kula - striyaḥ — family ladies
    *Kula* + *strī* (woman). The wives, daughters, sisters who carry the family's continuity. The same word *strī* whose root the Vedic tradition connects to *expansion* (the womb expands the lineage). The corruption of women is the corruption of futurity itself.
  • vārṣṇeya — O descendant of Vṛṣṇi
    Arjuna addresses Kṛṣṇa by His clan name — *descendant of Vṛṣṇi*. The Yādava clan to which Kṛṣṇa belongs. By naming Kṛṣṇa's *own kula*, Arjuna implicitly says: *you too have a family — you understand what its destruction would mean*. Family-feeling is invoked to amplify the appeal.
  • varṇa - saṅkaraḥ — unwanted progeny / mixing of varṇas
    *Varṇa* (colour, class) + *saṅkara* (mixing, confusion). A precise sociological term: the breakdown of the *varṇa* order, the loss of the principle by which each class fulfils its proper function. The Gītā in BG 3.24 will revisit this — Kṛṣṇa Himself acknowledges *saṅkara* as a real risk, but treats *His own dereliction* of cosmic duty as its true source — not Arjuna's discharge of his.
When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Kṛṣṇa, the women of the family become polluted, and from the degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, comes unwanted progeny.
Classical Sanskrit analysis शास्त्रीय विश्लेषण
How Sanskrit scholars read this verse — split, rearranged, grammar-tagged. For the plain English distilled meaning, jump to Plain meaning below.
Auto-generated study layers — original analysis of the public-domain śloka. Review against a published edition for academic work.
Plain meaning (तात्पर्य · Tātparya)
The chain of social ruin continues: adharma's dominance leads to the corruption of family-women, and that, in turn, to varṇa-saṅkara — the breakdown of birth-based social roles. Arjuna voices a classical kṣatriya-dharma concern in its full traditional logic.
Further notes (विवरण · Vivaraṇa)
Varṇa-saṅkara was a feared consequence in dharmaśāstra: birth into a known kula and varṇa anchored ritual duty, marriage rules, and ancestral offerings. The anxiety is about loss of patrilineal certainty when male protectors die in war. Vārṣṇeya invokes Kṛṣṇa's own Vṛṣṇi lineage — appealing to a kindred lineage-protector. The locative absolute strīṣu duṣṭāsu crisply marks the causal hinge.
Prose order (अन्वय · Anvaya)
हे कृष्ण! अधर्म-अभिभवात् कुल-स्त्रियः प्रदुष्यन्ति; हे वार्ष्णेय! स्त्रीषु दुष्टासु (सतीषु) वर्ण-सङ्करः जायते ।
he kṛṣṇa! adharma-abhibhavāt kula-striyaḥ praduṣyanti; he vārṣṇeya! strīṣu duṣṭāsu (satīṣu) varṇa-saṅkaraḥ jāyate |
O Kṛṣṇa, from the overpowering of adharma, the women of the family become corrupted; O Vārṣṇeya, when women are corrupted, mixing of varṇas arises.
Word split (पदच्छेद · Padaccheda)
अधर्म-अभिभवात् कृष्ण प्रदुष्यन्ति कुल-स्त्रियः । स्त्रीषु दुष्टासु वार्ष्णेय जायते वर्ण-सङ्करः ॥
adharma-abhibhavāt kṛṣṇa praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ | strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ ||
Grammar (व्याकरण · Vyākaraṇa)
SanskritIASTGrammarMeaning
अधर्म-अभिभवात् adharma-abhibhavāt अधर्म (m.) + अभिभव (m.) abl.sg. (ablative singular), tatpuruṣa cpd. (compound) from the overpowering of adharma
कृष्ण kṛṣṇa कृष्ण (m.) voc.sg. (vocative singular) O Kṛṣṇa
प्रदुष्यन्ति praduṣyanti प्र+√दुष् pres. (present) 3pl.par. (parasmaipada / active voice) become corrupted
कुल-स्त्रियः kula-striyaḥ कुल (n.) + स्त्री (f.) nom.pl. (nominative plural), tatpuruṣa cpd. (compound) the women of the family
स्त्रीषु strīṣu स्त्री (f.) loc.pl. (locative plural), "in the women" (loc. abs. (absolutive))
दुष्टासु duṣṭāsu √दुष् p.p.p. (past passive participle) loc.pl. (locative plural)f., "corrupted" (loc. abs. (absolutive))
वार्ष्णेय vārṣṇeya वार्ष्णेय (m.) voc.sg. (vocative singular) O descendant of Vṛṣṇi
जायते jāyate √जन् pres. (present) 3sg.ātm. (ātmanepada / middle voice) is born, arises
वर्ण-सङ्करः varṇa-saṅkaraḥ वर्ण (m.) + सङ्कर (m.) nom.sg. (nominative singular), tatpuruṣa cpd. (compound) mixing of varṇas
Purport

Good population in human society is the basic principle for peace, prosperity and spiritual progress in life. The varṇāśrama religion’s principles were so designed that the good population would prevail in society for the general spiritual progress of state and community. Such population depends on the chastity and faithfulness of its womanhood. As children are very prone to be misled, women are similarly very prone to degradation. Therefore, both children and women require protection by the elder members of the family. By being engaged in various religious practices, women will not be misled into adultery. According to Cāṇakya Paṇḍita, women are generally not very intelligent and therefore not trustworthy. So the different family traditions of religious activities should always engage them, and thus their chastity and devotion will give birth to a good population eligible for participating in the varṇāśrama system. On the failure of such varṇāśrama-dharma, naturally the women become free to act and mix with men, and thus adultery is indulged in at the risk of unwanted population. Irresponsible men also provoke adultery in society, and thus unwanted children flood the human race at the risk of war and pestilence.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
40. From prevalence of adharma, the women of the family become contaminated. O Kṛṣṇa, when the women are spoiled, mixed varṇas arise.
Commentary

When adharma is prevalent, the women of the family will become spoiled (praduṣyanti), by becoming adulterous.

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa Gauḍīya
Translation
40. From prevalence of adharma, the women of the family will become contaminated. O Kṛṣṇa, when the women are spoiled, mixed varṇas arise.
Commentary

Just as we, having been made to trespass dharma by our brothers, and bring about sin in the form of destruction of the family (adharmābhibhavāt), so the women, afflicted with ignorance, thinking that they may engage in sin, being made to defy vows of chastity by us, will become corrupted.

Study Notes — Gauranga Priya Dāsa
Gauranga Priya Dāsa Study
Bhakti-śāstrī Notes, ISKCON Chowpatty (2009)
Theme

COMMON THEME: Fighting will cause family destruction in the following 6-step sequence:

1. Death of Elderly (1.39)

Fighting destroys the whole dynasty

2. Family Traditions Stop: Irreligion increases (1.39)

With the destruction of dynasty, the entire family tradition is vanquished, and thus the rest of the family becomes involved in irreligion

3. Women polluted (1.40)

When irreligion is prominent, the women in the family become polluted
Chanakya Pandit says “Women need protection”
Why women need special protection – Because they are
Less intelligent
Not trustworthy
Prone to degradation
How they are protected – By engaging in religious principles, either under father, husband or son
If they are not protected, it leads to adultery and varna-sankara

4. Varna-sankara (unwanted progeny) (1.40*)

From degradation of woman comes unwanted progeny
Varna-sankara has three effects
Risk of war and pestilence
Hellish life
For the whole family – Ancestors falldown because pinda-dana stops

▪

For those who destroy family

All community projects and family welfare acts stop

5. Hellish life for ‘family’ and ‘destroyers of family’ (1.41*)

6. Culture is destroyed – Community projects and family welfare acts stop (1.42)

Focus of Learning

(c) Correct understanding about forgiveness / saintliness

Saintliness is not justified for a ksatriya
Compared to “Rama-rajya” – Lord Rama gave sufficient lessons to Ravana who was an aggressor because he kidnapped Rama’s wife, Mother Sita

(d) ‘Madhava’ – Arjuna addresses Krishna as ‘Madhava’ to indicate:

Krishna is the husband of the Goddess of ‘fortune’
Krishna should not cause an action which brings ‘misfortune’

(e) Saintliness of Arjuna – Arjuna’s thorough consideration of evil consequences reveals saintliness

(1.37 – 1.38)

Obligation (To not refuse when challenged to battle or gamble) is binding when the effect is good, not otherwise
Therefore Arjuna considered that he is not obliged to fight
ARJUNA’S FIFTH ARGUMENT — “INDECISION”

FIFTH ARGUMENT COVERED IN CHAPTER 2:

Please refer to Text 2.6 for Arjuna’s fifth argument

PLEASE NOTE: Some points of the purport are covered in the ‘6-step sequence of family destruction’

theme above

(a) Varnashrama Institution (1.39 purport) – Principles of religious traditions to help members of

family grow and attain spiritual values

(b) Role of elders (1.39 purport)

Responsible for maintaining purificatory samskaras (birth to death)
Helping younger generation on the path of salvation

(c) Importance of good population (1.40 purport) – It is the basic principle for peace, prosperity and

spiritual progress in life

(d) What good population depends on (1.40 purport) – Chastity and faithfulness of womanhood

(e) Philosophy of Pinda-Dan (1.41 purport)

Based on rules and regulations of fruitive acts
What it is – To offer periodical food and water to forefathers
Right process – worship of Vishnu done / remnants offered to forefathers
Principle: To release them from many sinful reactions / ghostly existence etc.
Who is not obliged for this – One in devotional life
Why devotees are not obliged – Because devotional service relieves hundreds and thousands of forefathers from all misery (Ref. SB. 11.5.41 “devarsi bhutapta…”)

(f) Community projects and family welfare acts – Importance (1.42 purport)

They are set forth by Varnashrama / Sanatana-dharma
Sets duties for four orders of society
Purpose – To help attain ultimate salvation
‘Result of breaking’ such projects
Chaos in society
People forget ultimate aim of life – Vishnu

(g) Ways of receiving real knowledge (1.43 purport) – Disciplic succession

Arjuna based his arguments not on personal experience, but on what he has heard from authorities

(h) Principle of ‘Prayascitta’ (1.43 purport) – A system in the varnashrama system by which before

death one has to undergo the process of atonement for his sinful activities

Without doing so, one surely will be transferred to the hellish planets to undergo miserable lives
Classical Ācāryas
Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Classical
Translation
1.40 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.
Śrī Rāmānujācārya Classical
Translation
1.26 - 1.47 Arjuna said - Sanjaya said Sanjaya continued: The high-minded Arjuna, extremely kind, deeply friendly, and supremely righteous, having brothers like himself, though repeatedly deceived by the treacherous attempts of your people like burning in the lac-house etc., and therefore fit to be killed by him with the help of the Supreme Person, nevertheless said, 'I will not fight.' He felt weak, overcome as he was by his love and extreme compassion for his relatives. He was also filled with fear, not knowing what was righteous and what unrighteous. His mind was tortured by grief, because of the thought of future separation from his relations. So he threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot as if to fast to death.
Śrī Abhinavagupta Classical
Translation
1.35 1.44 Nihatya etc. upto anususruma. Sin alone is the agent in the act of slaying these desperadoes. Therefore here the idea is this : These ememies of ours have been slain, i.e., have been take possession of, by sin. Sin would come to us also after slaying them. Sin in this context is the disregard, on account of greed etc., to the injurious conseences like the ruination of the family and the like. That is why Arjuna makes a specific mention of the [ruin of the] family etc., and of its duties in the passage 'How by slaying my own kinsmen etc'. The act of slaying, undertaken with an individualizing idea about its result, and with a particularizing idea about the person to be slain, is a great sin. To say this very thing precisely and to indicate the intensity of his own agony, Arjuna says only to himself [see next sloka]:
Swami Sivananda Classical
Translation
1.40. In the destruction of a family, the immemorial religious rites of that family perish; on the destruction of spirituality, impiety, indeed, overcomes the whole family.
Commentary

1.40 कुलक्षये in the destruction of a family? प्रणश्यन्ति perish? कुलधर्माः family religious rites? सनातनाः immemorial? धर्मे spirituality? नष्टे being destroyed? कुलम् कृत्स्नम् the whole family? अधर्मः impiety? अभिभवति overcomes? उत indeed.Commentary Dharma -- the duties and ceremonies practised by the family in accordance with the injunctions of the scriptures.

Swami Gambhīrānanda Classical
Translation
1.40 From the ruin of the family are totally destroyed the traditional rites and duties of the family. When rites and duties are destroyed, vice overpowers the entire family also.
Shri Purohit Swami Classical
Translation
1.40 The destruction of our kindred means the destruction of the traditions of our ancient lineage, and when these are lost, irreligion will overrun our homes.
Related values & verses
Related values
Kshama (Forgiveness / Patience)Shanti (Peace / Tranquility)Atma Nigraha (Self-control)Satya (Truthfulness)Ahimsa (Non-violence / Compassion)Vairagya (Detachment / Dispassion)Tyaga (Renunciation / Letting Go)
Related verses
BG 1.41 BG 3.24 BG 16.7 SB 12.3.32 SB 1.17.25 SB 12.2.4 CC Ādi 17.110 CC Madhya 20.330 CC Ādi 3.40 Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.15Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.10
Concepts
Dharma
Study Q&A referencing this verse
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
The destruction of dharma in a family is the destruction of the family itself; the surface form survives, but the soul of the lineage is gone.
Practical Applications
  • Notice the difference between maintaining a family's outer customs and maintaining its dharma.
  • Have one explicitly spiritual conversation with a family member this month.
  • Do not let economic concerns silently displace the religious heart of your home.
Reflection Questions
  • Where have we kept the form of family but lost its dharma?
  • What am I willing to do to restore the spiritual current of my lineage?
Analogy

When the household lamp is extinguished, the moths fly elsewhere. Without the protections that *dharma* gives the home, the women — who carry the future of the lineage in their bodies — are the first to be exposed to corruption. The verse names the social physics: the dignity of women rises and falls with the dharma of the men.

Stories
Draupadī in the dice-hall

Years before Kurukṣetra, in this very Kuru court, Yudhiṣṭhira had gambled away his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and finally Draupadī. Duḥśāsana dragged her by the hair into the assembly, attempted to disrobe her, and the elders of the family — Bhīṣma included — sat silent. Kṛṣṇa alone, unseen, extended her sari endlessly.

Arjuna saw this. He had been present, bound by his elder's pledge, watching his wife humiliated by his cousins. *Strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ* — "O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, from women being so afflicted, mixed-up society is born." When he says these words on the chariot, he is remembering the dice-hall. The verse is not theory for him — it is biography. The *kula-dharma* of the Kurus had already failed once, in his own life. The war is the consequence of that earlier failure.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

← Read full Chapter 1