Bg. 1.29 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

वेपथुश्च शरीरे मे रोमहर्षश्च जायते । गाण्डीवं स्रंसते हस्तात्त्वक्च‍ैव परिदह्यते ॥ २९ ॥

Verse text

vepathuś ca śarīre me roma-harṣaś ca jāyate gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt tvak caiva paridahyate

Synonyms

vepathuḥ — trembling of the body ; ca — also ; śarīre — on the body ; me — my ; roma-harṣaḥ — standing of hair on end ; ca — also ; jāyate — is taking place ; gāṇḍīvam — the bow of Arjuna ; sraṁsate — is slipping ; hastāt — from the hand ; tvak — skin ; ca — also ; eva — certainly ; paridahyate — is burning.

Translation

My whole body is trembling, my hair is standing on end, my bow Gāṇḍīva is slipping from my hand, and my skin is burning.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

28-29. O Kṛṣṇa, seeing all my relatives and friends gathered to fight, my limbs are weakening, my mouth is drying up, my body is trembling and my hairs are standing on end. My bow is falling from my hand and my skin is burning.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

28-29. O Kṛṣṇa, seeing all my relatives and friends gathered to fight, my limbs are weakening, my mouth is drying up, my body is trembling and my hairs are standing on end. My bow is falling from my hand and my skin is burning.

Purport

There are two kinds of trembling of the body, and two kinds of standings of the hair on end. Such phenomena occur either in great spiritual ecstasy or out of great fear under material conditions. There is no fear in transcendental realization. Arjuna’s symptoms in this situation are out of material fear – namely, loss of life. This is evident from other symptoms also; he became so impatient that his famous bow Gāṇḍīva was slipping from his hands, and, because his heart was burning within him, he was feeling a burning sensation of the skin. All these are due to a material conception of life.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Seeing all these known people, my mouth has dried up. The phrase “As I stand here” should be added at the beginning of the sentence. “As I stand here seeing this, my limbs become weak.”

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Having been described as afflicted with lamentation, Arjuna in this verse expresses the same in his speaking. Svajanam, meaning his group of friends, is in the singular case to express a class. Amara Kośa says that svajana is the equivalent of friend or relative. After I, situated here, have seen those relatives assembled, my limbs such as hands and feet are weakening (sīdanti), and my mouth has dried up completely (pariśuṣyati) from fatigue. His hairs were standing on end (roma harṣaḥ) and his body was quivering (vepathuḥ). That his bow was falling from his hand indicated his unsteadiness, and his burning skin indicated his burning heart.