🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 1.39
Chapter 1 · अर्जुनविषादयोग · Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga · "The Yoga of Arjuna's Despondency" · Verse 39 of 47
🪷 English Translations
Five authentic English voices · each from a distinct sampradāya · together revealing the verse's full śabda-tattva.
Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition
1.39 Should not we, whose eyes are open, who consider it to be wrong to annihilate our house, turn away from so great a crime?
Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society
1.39. Why should not we who clearly see evil in the destruction
of families, learn to turn away from this sin, O Janardana (Krishna)?
Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school
1.39 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school
1.26 - 1.47 Arjuna said - Sanjaya said Sanjaya continued: The high-minded Arjuna, extremely kind, deeply friendly, and supremely righteous, having brothers like himself, though repeatedly deceived by the treacherous attempts of your people like burning in the lac-house etc., and therefore fit to be killed by him with the help of the Supreme Person, nevertheless said, 'I will not fight.'
He felt weak, overcome as he was by his love and extreme compassion for his relatives. He was also filled with fear, not knowing what was righteous and what unrighteous. His mind was tortured by grief, because of the thought of future separation from his relations. So he threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot as if to fast to death.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly
1.39. But, perceiving clearly the evil conseences ensuing from the ruin of the family, should we not have a sense to refrain from this sinful act [of fighting the war], O Janardana ?
🪷 English Commentaries · The Ācārya Voices
The classical commentary tradition rendered in English · each ācārya speaks from their own sampradāya · the seer chooses the depth of darśana.
Swami Sivananda · Verse-by-verse word-keys with Sanskrit anchors
1.39 कथम् why? न not? ज्ञेयम् should be learnt? अस्माभिः by us? पापात् from sin? अस्मात् this? निवर्तितुम् to turn away? कुलक्षयकृतम् in the destruction of families? दोषम् evil? प्रपश्यद्भिः clearly seeing? जनार्दन O Janardana.Commentary Ignorance of law is no excuse but wanton sinful conduct is a grave crime? unworthy of us? who are wiser.
Swami Gambīrānanda · Advaita-school commentary (Śaṅkara tradition)
1.39 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.
Swami Ādidevānanda · Rāmānuja Śrī-Vaiṣṇava commentary
1.26 - 1.47 Arjuna said - Sanjaya said Sanjaya continued: The high-minded Arjuna, extremely kind, deeply friendly, and supremely righteous, having brothers like himself, though repeatedly deceived by the treacherous attempts of your people like burning in the lac-house etc., and therefore fit to be killed by him with the help of the Supreme Person, nevertheless said, 'I will not fight.'
He felt weak, overcome as he was by his love and extreme compassion for his relatives. He was also filled with fear, not knowing what was righteous and what unrighteous. His mind was tortured by grief, because of the thought of future separation from his relations. So he threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot as if to fast to death.
Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Modern academic scholarship
1.35 1.44 Nihatya etc. upto anususruma. Sin alone is the agent in the act of slaying these desperadoes. Therefore here the idea is this : These ememies of ours have been slain, i.e., have been take possession of, by sin. Sin would come to us also after slaying them. Sin in this context is the disregard, on account of greed etc., to the injurious conseences like the ruination of the family and the like. That is why Arjuna makes a specific mention of the [ruin of the] family etc., and of its duties in the passage 'How by slaying my own kinsmen etc'.
The act of slaying, undertaken with an individualizing idea about its result, and with a particularizing idea about the person to be slain, is a great sin. To say this very thing precisely and to indicate the intensity of his own agony, Arjuna says only to himself [see next sloka]:
Swami Chinmayānanda · Chinmaya Mission · modern Vedantic teaching
।।1.39।। निसंदेह सत्ता और धन के लालच से अन्धे हुए कौरव यह देखने में असमर्थ थे कि इस युद्ध के कारण सम्पूर्ण सामाजिक ढाँचे का कितना विनाश होने वाला है। उनकी महत्त्वाकांक्षा ने उनके विवेक और भावना को इस प्रकार आच्छादित कर दिया था कि युद्ध में अपने ही बान्धवों की हत्याओं की क्रूरता को भी वे नहीं समझ पा रहे थे।अर्जुन के कथन से लगता है कि उसने अपना विवेक खोया नहीं था और इस भ्रातृहन्ता युद्ध के द्वारा होने वाले भावी सामाजिक विनाश को वह स्पष्ट देख रहा था। उसका प्रस्तुत तर्क कुछ इस प्रकार का है। यदि हमारा कोई मित्र मद्यपान के कारण स्वयं को भूलकर अभद्र व्यवहार करता है तो उस समय उसका प्रतिकार करना और भी अधिक विचित्र बात होगी। हमको समझना चाहिये कि उस मित्र ने अपना विवेक खो दिया है और वह स्वयं ही नहीं जानता कि वह क्या कर रहा है। ऐसे समय हमारे लिये उचित है कि उसकी अशिष्टता पर ध्यान न देकर उसे क्षमा कर दें।इसी प्रकार अर्जुन का तर्क है कि यदि दुर्योधन और उसके मित्र अन्धे होकर अन्यायपूर्ण आक्रमण करते हैं तो क्या पाण्डवों को शान्ति की वेदी पर स्वयं का बलिदान करते हुये युद्ध से विरत हो जाना उचित नहीं है यह धारणा स्वयं में कितनी खतरनाक है इसको हम तब समझेंगे जब गीता के आगामी परिच्छेदों में तत्त्वज्ञान के महत्त्वपूर्ण अंश को देखेंगे जो भारतीय जीवन का सारतत्त्व है। अधर्म का सक्रिय प्रतिकार ही एक मुख्य सिद्धांत है जिसका भगवान् श्रीकृष्ण ने गीता में प्रतिपादन किया है।
🪷 Place in the Bhagavad-Gītā
- This is verse 39 of 47 in Chapter 1 · Arjuna-Viṣāda-Yoga (The Yoga of Arjuna's Despondency)
- Chapter theme: The seeker's collapse at the threshold of dharma
- Ṣaṭka grouping: TVAM-Ṣaṭka (BG 1-6 · the jīva)
- Chapter hub: /arjuna-vishada
🪷 ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय 🪷
सर्वम् कृष्णार्पणम् — this verse is one maṇi (jewel) on Krishna's thread (BG 7.7)