Arjuna
यथा प्रदीप्तं ज्वलनं पतङ्गा विशन्ति नाशाय समृद्धवेगाः । तथैव नाशाय विशन्ति लोका स्तवापि वक्त्राणि समृद्धवेगाः ॥
yathā pradīptaṃ jvalanaṃ pataṅgā viśanti nāśāya samṛddhavegāḥ | tathaiva nāśāya viśanti lokā stavāpi vaktrāṇi samṛddhavegāḥ ||
As moths rush at full speed into a blazing fire to be destroyed, so too these people rush at full speed into your mouths to their own destruction.
Explanation Arjuna is describing the terrifying cosmic form (viśvarūpa) that Krishna has shown him. Having compared the warriors to rivers rushing into the sea, he now compares them to moths flying into a flame, which stresses how blindly and quickly they are drawn to their end. The image shows time and destruction as an overwhelming force that nothing can resist.
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About the Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita, in Sanskrit श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता (Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā ), “the song of the Lord”, is a dialogue of 18 chapters and 700 verses from the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata. On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, as the war is about to begin, the warrior Arjuna loses heart at the thought of fighting his own kin, and his charioteer Krishna answers him: on duty, on acting without attachment to the results, on knowledge, meditation and devotion. Sanjaya recounts the conversation to the blind king Dhritarashtra. The name is also written Bhagwad Gita, Bhagvad Gita, Bhagavat Gita or Bhagavad Geeta; with the honorific, Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavad Gita or Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta; and often simply the Gita or Geeta.
Every verse is here in the original Sanskrit, with a Roman (IAST) transliteration, a plain-language translation and a short explanation, in English, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, French and Tamil. The translations were made from the Sanskrit for this site and reviewed; they follow no published translation. Reading is free, with no account or advertising, and your progress stays in your browser. The verses are numbered 1.1 to 18.78, 701 in all, counting the question that opens chapter 13.
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