Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 18, Verse 38
विषयेन्द्रियसंयोगाद्यत्तदग्रेऽमृतोपमम्।परिणामे विषमिव तत्सुखं राजसं स्मृतम्।।
viṣayendriya-sanyogād yat tad agre ’mṛtopamam
pariṇāme viṣam iva tat sukhaṁ rājasaṁ smṛtam
also searched as "vishayendriya-sanyogad yat tad agre amritopamam"
Translation
That pleasure which arises from the contact of senses with their objects, which is like elixir at first but like poison in the end, is said to be Rajasic.
Vāṇi's rendering
What tastes like nectar at first — senses meeting their objects — and turns to poison in the end, is restless.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| विषयेन्द्रियसंयोगात्viṣaya-indriya-sanyogāt | from the meeting of the senses with their objects |
| यत्yat | which |
| तत्tat | that |
| अग्रेagre | at first, in the beginning |
| अमृतोपमम्amṛta-upamam | like nectar, resembling the drink of immortality (joined in sandhi with the preceding agre) |
| परिणामेpariṇāme | in the aftermath, when it ripens out |
| विषम्viṣam | poison |
| इवiva | like |
| तत्tat | that |
| सुखम्sukham | pleasure, happiness |
| राजसम्rājasam | restless, driven by hunger and heat |
| स्मृतम्smṛtam | is called, is held to be |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Verse 38 mean?
It names a pleasure by its arc, not its moment. Senses touch their objects and delight arrives like amṛta — and later the same delight has turned corrosive. Krishna calls this rājasa: real sweetness with a bill attached. The verse asks you to judge a pleasure by where it ends, not where it begins.
What does vishayendriya-sanyogad yat tad agre amritopamam teach about desire?
That desire does not lie about the first taste. The nectar is genuine. What it hides is pariṇāme — the ripening, the after. Krishna is not shaming appetite; he is extending your line of sight past the instant of contact, so that the whole shape of a pleasure becomes visible before you reach for it.
Is Krishna saying all sense pleasure is wrong?
No. He is sorting, not forbidding. The previous verse praised a happiness bitter at first and sweet at last. Here the order reverses. The senses are not the fault; the fault is mistaking the opening taste for the whole account. Discipline, in the Gītā, is simply the willingness to read to the end.
How do I tell restless pleasure from steady happiness in daily life?
Ask what it leaves behind. Steady happiness leaves you clearer, and costs something up front. Restless pleasure arrives free and charges later — in your sleep, your money, your steadiness of mind. You need no scripture for this test. You need only to remember, honestly, what last time cost you.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
View on the App Store
Commentary
Nectar first, poison after — Krishna is not describing bad pleasures. He is describing the shape of a certain kind. The sweetness is real; that is what makes the description honest. Sense meets object, and something floods in that genuinely tastes like immortality. Then the reckoning: the same thing, later, is poison — in the body, in the attention, in the self-respect. Nothing changed but the hour. Arjuna wants to know which pleasures to trust. Krishna gives him a test he can run himself: taste the first sip, then ask what the last one costs. You already know which answers you avoid.