Chapter 2: Contents of the Gītā Summarized

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 2.11

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

aśocyān anvaśocas tvaḿ

prajñā-vādāḿś ca bhāṣase

gatāsūn agatāsūḿś ca

nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

SYNONYMS

śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; aśocyān — not worthy of lamentation; anvaśocaḥ — you are lamenting; tvam — you; prajñā-vādān — learned talks; ca — also; bhāṣase — speaking; gata — lost; asūn — life; agata — not past; asūn — life; ca — also; na — never; anuśocanti — lament; paṇḍitāḥ — the learned.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.

PURPORT

The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool. The Lord said, "You are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned — one who knows what is body and what is soul — does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition." As explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. And because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness