BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:11

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 2:11

 

sri-bhagavan uvaca

asocyan anvasocas tvam

prajna-vadams ca bhasase

gatasun agatasums ca

nanusocanti panditah

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

sri-bhagavan uvaca--the Supreme Personality of Godhead said;

asocyan--not worthy of lamentation; anvasocah--you are lamenting;

tvam--you; prajna-vadan--learned talks; ca--also; bhasase--speaking;

gata--lost; asun--life; agata--not past; asun--life; ca--also;

na--never; anusocanti--lament; panditah--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.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.