Sanskrit
उत्सीदेयुरिमे लोका न कुर्यां कर्म चेदहम् । सङ्करस्य च कर्ता स्यामुपहन्यामिमाः प्रजाः ॥
utsīdeyur ime lokā na kuryāṃ karma ced aham saṅkarasya ca kartā syām upahanyām imāḥ prajāḥ
Translation
These worlds would fall into ruin, if I did not perform action; I should be the author of confusion of castes, and should destroy these creatures.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The counterfactual’s conclusion invokes sankara, “confusion of castes” — the same varna-sankara anxiety that drove Arjuna’s own argument against fighting back in 1.41-43. Worth being direct about this: the verse takes for granted a caste-order social theory as something whose collapse would be catastrophic, a dated assumption of its context rather than a claim this reading treats as still binding. What’s structurally interesting is that both sides of the chapter 1-3 argument — Arjuna’s case for not fighting, and Krishna’s case here for why he himself acts — independently reach for the same caste-preservation logic as a worst-case scenario.