Bhagavad Gita 2.36
अवाच्यवादांश्च बहून्वदिष्यन्ति तवाहिताः । निन्दन्तस्तव सामर्थ्यं ततो दुःखतरं नु किम् ॥
avācya-vādāṃś ca bahūn vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ | nindantas tava sāmarthyaṃ tato duḥkhataraṃ nu kim ||
Translation
And your enemies, deriding your strength, will say many things unfit to be said. What is more painful than that?
Reflection
What capacity of yours are you protecting by not using it?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Two
Krishna names the small pain that often outlasts the big ones. The unspeakable said, by people who hate you, about the one capacity you trusted. Sāmarthyam. Strength, competence. The thing they will make fun of is the thing he is afraid to use. Notice the strategic angle: it is not the moral consequence that gets named here, nor the metaphysical one. It is the embarrassment. The teacher who began with the deathless self is now arguing from the place where the listener actually lives.