Bhagavad Gita 1.47 is Chapter 1, Verse 47, in Arjuna Vishada Yoga (Arjuna's Dilemma). Below are the Sanskrit text, a transliteration, a plain-English translation and an explanation.
sañjaya uvāca evam uktvārjunaḥ saṅkhye rathopastha upāviśat visṛjya sa-śaraṁ cāpaṁ śoka-saṁvigna-mānasaḥ
"Sanjaya said: Having spoken thus on the battlefield, Arjuna cast aside his bow and arrows and sat down on the seat of his chariot, his mind overwhelmed with grief."
What This Means:
The chapter ends with this iconic image: Arjuna, the greatest warrior, puts down his weapons and collapses onto his chariot seat, overcome by sorrow. This is rock bottom, and the perfect setup for Krishna's teaching.
Going Deeper:
Arjuna's collapse is necessary. Only when our old certainties completely fail us are we ready for new understanding. His despair creates the opening for transformation. Chapter 2 will begin Krishna's response.
How To Apply This:
Sometimes we need to hit bottom before we're ready for transformation. The collapse of our normal functioning, painful as it is, can be the doorway to deeper wisdom. Don't rush past the breakdown.
Where this verse sits
This is the final verse of the first chapter, which the tradition titles Arjuna Vishada Yoga, the yoga of Arjuna's despair. The chapter has moved from the armies drawn up, through Arjuna's request to be driven between them, to his sight of teachers, uncles and cousins on the other side and the long speech in which he refuses to fight. Verse 47 is Sanjaya's report to the blind king Dhritarashtra of what that speech ended in: the greatest archer of the age putting down his bow and sitting.
What the words say
Sankhye means in the battle, rathopasthe upavishat, 'he sat down on the chariot seat', and visrijya sa-sharam chapam, 'having let go the bow together with the arrow', describes the gesture: the bow set down together with its arrows. Shoka-samvigna-manasa, 'his mind agitated by grief', is the diagnosis Krishna will treat from 2.11 onward, where his first words call the grief misplaced. The chapter's title is worth noticing: the tradition counted this despair as a yoga, a stage of the path, because without it there would have been no question and no teaching.
A common misreading
Arjuna's collapse is sometimes taken as cowardice, and Krishna's opening rebuke in 2.2 and 2.3 can be read that way. But the Gita does not treat the breakdown as a fault to be skipped. The refusal is what makes Arjuna, in 2.7, say 'I am your pupil, teach me', and a teaching that begins in confusion is the pattern of the Upanishads too. The verse invites the reader to recognise their own version of the moment: the point where a settled life stops working and the honest response is to sit down and ask.
Key Sanskrit Terms: