Bg. 4.40 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

अज्ञश्चाश्रद्दधानश्च संशयात्मा विनश्यति । नायं लोकोऽस्ति न परो न सुखं संशयात्मनः ॥ ४० ॥

Verse text

ajṣaś cāśraddadhānaś ca saṁśayātmā vinaśyati nāyaṁ loko ’sti na paro na sukhaṁ saṁśayātmanaḥ

Synonyms

ajṣaḥ — a fool who has no knowledge in standard scriptures ; ca — and ; aśraddadhānaḥ — without faith in revealed scriptures ; ca — also ; saṁśaya — of doubts ; ātmā — a person ; vinaśyati — falls back ; na — never ; ayam — in this ; lokaḥ — world ; asti — there is ; na — nor ; paraḥ — in the next life ; na — not ; sukham — happiness ; saṁśaya — doubtful ; ātmanaḥ — of the person.

Translation

But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

40. The person ignorant of scripture, or one who knows scripture but has no faith in it, or one who is doubtful of attaining the goal even with faith, perishes. One who is afflicted with doubt attains nothing in this life, nothing in the next, and no happiness.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

40. The ignorant, or one who knows scripture but has no faith in it, or one who is doubtful of attaining the goal even with faith, perishes. One who is afflicted with doubt attains nothing in this life, nothing in the next, and no happiness.

Purport

Out of many standard and authoritative revealed scriptures, the Bhagavad-gītā is the best. Persons who are almost like animals have no faith in, or knowledge of, the standard revealed scriptures; and some, even though they have knowledge of, or can cite passages from, the revealed scriptures, have actually no faith in these words. And even though others may have faith in scriptures like Bhagavad-gītā, they do not believe in or worship the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Such persons cannot have any standing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They fall down. Out of all the above-mentioned persons, those who have no faith and are always doubtful make no progress at all. Men without faith in God and His revealed word find no good in this world, nor in the next. For them there is no happiness whatsoever. One should therefore follow the principles of revealed scriptures with faith and thereby be raised to the platform of knowledge. Only this knowledge will help one become promoted to the transcendental platform of spiritual understanding. In other words, doubtful persons have no status whatsoever in spiritual emancipation. One should therefore follow in the footsteps of great ācāryas who are in the disciplic succession and thereby attain success.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Having spoken of the person who was qualified with knowledge, in this verse Kṛṣṇa speaks of the person without qualification for knowledge. That person perishes who is ignorant like an animal, or who, though knowing the scriptures, does not believe in anything, because of seeing the arguments between various factions (aśraddhadānaḥ), or who though even having faith, is afflicted with doubt whether he can attain the goal. Among these persons (ignorant, faithless, and doubting), the doubting one is especially criticized in the last line.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Having described those qualified for knowledge and the results, the Lord now describes the unqualified person and the result for that person. The ignorant person, like an animal, with no knowledge of scriptures; or the person who, in spire of having knowledge of scriptures, has no faith, since he has a quarrelsome nature; or the person who, in spite of having faith, doubts if he can attain the perfection—this person is destroyed. This means he deviates from his own interest. Among these persons, the one with doubts is especially criticized. This doubtful person does not have happiness from the gross world or the next world. Happiness is generated from actions prescribed by scriptures. That action is accompanied by knowledge of the individual ātmā. Where is that happiness for one who has doubts about attaining the goal?

Surrender Unto Me

There are three classes of people mentioned here: ignorant, faithless and doubters. The first is the "ajna" translated as 'the fool who has no knowledge in standard scriptures'. The second one is "asraddadhanas" which means that he reads many sastras but he doesn't have faith in anyone of them. And the third one is the "samsaya atma", the 'doubter'. Out of these three the 'doubter' is in the most precarious position because there is no happiness for him neither in this world nor the next. Such a person is not happy in the present and will not be happy in the future either. [ 4 . The symptoms of success: One successfully working in transcendental knowledge desires no fruits, has no doubts, knows he's an eternal servant of Krsna, and is not bound by work. (41) ]