Bhagavad Gita · Karma YogaChapter 3, Shloka 24 (3.24)

Two consequences. (1) Utsīdeyuḥ — the worlds would fall apart; (2) saṅkarasya kartā — the cause of disorder.

Shankaracharya: loka-sthiti-nimittasya karmaṇaḥ abhāvāt — for lack of the action that keeps the world in order, the worlds would perish. And though I am prajānām anugrahāya pravṛttaḥ — engaged out of grace towards beings — I would bring about their upahanana (destruction) — mama īśvarasya ananurūpam āpadyeta — which would not befit me, Ishvara.

Acharya Ramanuja: Good people, whose certainty about dharma is mad-ācārāyatta — dependent on my conduct — would, if I did not do the actions proper to my family, perish simply by not acting; śāstrīyācārāṇām apālanāt sarveṣāṃ śiṣṭa-kulānāṃ saṅkarasya ca kartā syām — through the non-observance of scriptural conduct I would become the cause of disorder in all good families. And he applies this directly to Arjuna: you too — son of Pandu, foremost among good people, younger brother of Yudhishthira — if you take up jnana-nishtha, then seekers of liberation with incomplete knowledge who follow you would also, not knowing their own eligibility, abandon steadfastness in action and perish.

"Saṅkara" — in context. In the traditional commentaries "saṅkara" is connected with the breakdown of scriptural conduct and of social and family norms (and of the varna system). In this book it is explained as social disorder — the breaking of society's norms when exemplary people abandon their duty; reading it as a rule of caste purity or discrimination goes against the spirit of the verse (see the note on 1.41–1.43 in Chapter 1).