Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 2, Verse 52
यदा ते मोहकलिलं बुद्धिर्व्यतितरिष्यति।
तदा गन्तासि निर्वेदं श्रोतव्यस्य श्रुतस्य च।।
तदा गन्तासि निर्वेदं श्रोतव्यस्य श्रुतस्य च।।
yadā te moha-kalilaṁ buddhir vyatitariṣyati
tadā gantāsi nirvedaṁ śrotavyasya śrutasya ca
also searched as "yada te mohakalilam buddhir vyatitarishyati"
Translation
When your intellect has passed beyond the tangle of delusion, you will yourself feel disgusted with what you have heard and what you will hear.
Vāṇi's rendering
When your mind climbs out of delusion's thicket, all this talk — heard and unheard — will stop mattering.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| यदाyadā | when |
| तेte | your |
| मोह-कलिलंmoha-kalilaṁ | the thicket of delusion — a dense, tangled confusion you cannot see through |
| बुद्धिःbuddhiḥ | the discerning mind (appears as buddhir before the following v) |
| व्यतितरिष्यतिvyatitariṣyati | will cross clean over |
| तदाtadā | then |
| गन्तासिgantāsi | you will arrive at |
| निर्वेदंnirvedaṁ | the state of being done with it — no appetite left for more |
| श्रोतव्यस्यśrotavyasya | of what is still to be heard |
| श्रुतस्यśrutasya | of what has already been heard |
| चca | and |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Verse 52 mean?
Krishna tells Arjuna that once his buddhi crosses out of delusion's tangle, the endless appetite for teaching will simply fall away. Not because doctrine is false, but because it has done its work. What you have heard and what you have yet to hear stop pulling at you. The seeking quiets from the inside.
What does 'yada te mohakalilam buddhir vyatitarishyati' mean?
When your mind climbs out of the thicket of delusion. Kalila is undergrowth so dense you cannot find the path — Krishna is describing confusion as terrain, not as a mistake. The mind does not argue its way out. It walks out, and then the light is simply there.
Is nirveda the same as losing interest in spiritual life?
No. Nirveda here is fullness, not fatigue. A person who has eaten does not despise food; the craving has just ended. Krishna is not telling Arjuna to stop caring — he is telling him that the restless collecting of words will end when what the words pointed to becomes his own.
If teachings stop mattering, why should I keep studying scripture?
Because you are not across yet. Krishna says this to Arjuna in the middle of seven hundred verses, not at the end. The raft is not discarded midstream. Study until the thicket thins — and notice honestly whether your reading is carrying you over, or keeping you comfortably in the trees.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna has been listening. Chapter upon chapter of teaching is coming toward him, and Krishna pauses to say what the end of listening looks like — not more listening. Nirveda is neither boredom nor contempt. It is the quiet that arrives when the question has actually been answered and the mind stops shopping. You know that hunger: one more book, one more talk, one more voice that might finally settle it. The hunger is itself the thicket. Krishna does not call the teachings worthless; he calls them a raft across. When you are across, you set the raft down and walk.