Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 16, Verse 11
चिन्तामपरिमेयां च प्रलयान्तामुपाश्रिताः।कामोपभोगपरमा एतावदिति निश्चिताः।।
cintām aparimeyāṁ ca pralayāntām upāśritāḥ
kāmopabhoga-paramā etāvad iti niścitāḥ
also searched as "chintam aparimeyam cha pralayantam upashritah"
Translation
Obsessed by unlimited cares that end with dissolution, looking upon the enjoyment of desires as their highest aim, and convinced that this is all;
Vāṇi's rendering
Their worries have no floor and end only at death. Pleasure is their highest aim; they are certain this is all.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| चिन्ताम्cintām | anxiety, gnawing care |
| अपरिमेयाम्aparimeyām | immeasurable, past counting |
| चca | and |
| प्रलयान्ताम्pralaya-antām | ending only at dissolution — at death (pralaya + antām) |
| उपाश्रिताःupāśritāḥ | having taken refuge in, clung to |
| कामोपभोगपरमाःkāma-upabhoga-paramāḥ | for whom the enjoyment of desire is the highest thing (kāma + upabhoga + paramāḥ) |
| एतावत्etāvat | this much, this and no more |
| इतिiti | thus, so |
| निश्चिताःniścitāḥ | settled in their certainty, convinced |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16 Verse 11 mean?
Krishna describes a life closed at both ends. Certain that nothing exists beyond the visible, such a person makes pleasure the highest aim, and the anxiety of getting and keeping becomes bottomless — it releases them only at death. The worry is not a flaw in the plan. It is the plan working exactly as designed.
What does chintam aparimeyam cha pralayantam upashritah teach us?
That anxiety without limit has a belief underneath it. Aparimeyā cintā — immeasurable care — grows in whoever has quietly concluded that this world is the whole of it. When everything must be extracted now, nothing can ever be enough. Loosen the conviction and the worry loses its floorless quality.
Is the Gita saying that enjoying pleasure is wrong?
No. Krishna does not attack pleasure anywhere in this passage. He names the position it has been given — paramā, highest, the summit above which nothing rises. Pleasure is a fine guest and a cruel master. What ruins a life is not the enjoying but the certainty that there is nothing else worth aiming at.
How do I know if this verse describes me?
Watch where your worry ends. If every anxious thought terminates in something you must secure, hold, or not lose, you are living inside the assumption Krishna is naming. The test is not whether you enjoy things. It is whether you can imagine anything worth your attention that you cannot possess.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Notice the order. Worry first, then pleasure, then certainty — but the certainty came first. A man who has decided this is all there is must squeeze everything from it, so his cares multiply past counting and stop only when he stops. Pleasure is not the disease here. The conviction beneath it is. Arjuna is shown what a closed world does to a person: it does not make him free, it makes him frantic. Count your own worries sometime, and ask what each one quietly believes about how much time there is.