Bhagavad Gita verses for grief

Whoever knows it to be indestructible, eternal, unborn, and inexhaustible, how can that person slay, O Arjuna, or cause to be slain?

The enlightened sage who knows the immutable and indestructible Self through direct cognition or spiritual Anubhava (experience) cannot do the act of slaying. He cannot cause another to slay also.

For the born, death is certain, and for the dead, birth is certain; therefore, you should not grieve over the inevitable.

Birth is sure to happen to that which is dead death is sure to happen to what which is born. Birth and death are certainly unavoidable. Therefore, you should not grieve over an inevitable matter.

Sanjaya said: To him, who was thus overcome with pity, despondent, with eyes full of tears and agitated, Madhusudana (the destroyer of Madhu) or Krishna spoke these words.

Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization. The word “Madhusūdana” is significant in this verse. Lord Kṛṣṇa killed the…

I do not see that this sorrow that burns up my senses would be removed, even if I were to attain prosperous and unrivaled dominion on earth or lordship over the gods.

Although Arjuna was putting forward so many arguments based on knowledge of the principles of religion and moral codes, it appears that he was unable to solve his real problem without the help of the spiritual master,…

To him who was despondent in the midst of the two armies, Krishna, smiling, O Bharata, spoke these words.

The talk was going on between intimate friends, namely the Hṛṣīkeśa and the Guḍākeśa. As friends, both of them were on the same level, but one of them voluntarily became a student of the other. Kṛṣṇa was smiling because…

Just as the embodied soul passes through childhood, youth, and old age in this body, so too does it pass into another body; the steadfast one does not grieve over this.

-- Just as there is no interruption in the passing of childhood into youth and youth into old age in this body, so also there is no interruption by death in the continuity of the ego. The Self is not dead at the…

He who takes the Self to be the slayer and he who thinks it is slain, neither of them knows. It does not slay, nor is it slain.

-- The Self is nondoer (Akarta) and as It is immutable, It is neither the agent nor the object of the act of slaying. He who thinks I slay or I am slain with the body or the Ahamkara (ego), he does not really comprehend…

Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so too the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others that are new.

Change of body by the atomic individual soul is an accepted fact. Even the modern scientists who do not believe in the existence of the soul, but at the same time cannot explain the source of energy from the heart, have…

People will also recount your everlasting dishonor; and for one who has been honored, dishonor is worse than death.

The world also will ever recount thy infamy which will survive thee for a long time. Death is really preferable to disgrace to one who has been honoured as a great hero and mighty warrior with noble alities.

If the embodied one meets death when Sattva is predominant, then they attain the spotless worlds of the knowers of the Highest.

Lokan Amalan Sptless worlds Brahmaloka and the like where Rajas and Tamas never predominate.The Highest Deities such as Hiranyagarbha.

By these evil deeds of the destroyers of the family, which cause confusion of castes, the eternal religious rites of the caste and the family are destroyed.

Arjuna bases his argument not on his own personal experience, but on what he has heard from the authorities. That is the way of receiving real knowledge. One cannot reach the real point of factual knowledge without being…

These bodies of the embodied Self, which are eternal, indestructible, and immeasurable, are said to have an end. Therefore, fight, O Arjuna.

-- Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna the nature of the allpervading, immortal Self in a variety of ways and thus induces him to fight by removing his delusion, grief and despondency which are born of ignorance.

It is not born, nor does it ever die; after having been, it again does not cease to be; unborn, eternal, changeless, and ancient, it is not killed when the body is killed.

This Self (Atman) is destitute of the six types of transformation or BhavaVikaras such as birth, existence, growth, transformation, decline and death. As It is indivisible (Akhanda). It does not diminish in size. It…

What is action? What is inaction? Even the wise are confused about this. Therefore, I shall teach you the nature of action and inaction, by knowing which you will be liberated from the evil of Samsara, the wheel of birth and death.

Action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness has to be executed in accord with the examples of previous bona fide devotees. This is recommended in the fifteenth verse. Why such action should not be independent will be explained in the…

Who and how is Adhiyajna here in this body, O destroyer of Madhu? And how, at the time of death, are You to be known by the self-controlled?

Arjuna put seven questions to the Lord1. What is that Brahman Is it Brahman with the Upadhis (limiting adjuncts) or Brahman without them2. Is it the aggregate of the senses or individual consciousness (PratyakChaitanya)…

Adhibhuta—knowledge of the elements—pertains to My perishable nature, and the Purusha, or the Soul, is the Adhidaiva; I alone am the Adhiyajna here in this body, O best among the embodied.

Adhibhuta the perishable nature the changing universe of the five elements with all its objects all the material objects everything that has birth the changing world of names and forms.Adhidaiva Purusha literally means…

And whoever, leaving their body, goes forth remembering Me alone at the time of death, they will attain My Being; there is no doubt about this.

In this verse the importance of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is stressed. Anyone who quits his body in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is at once transferred to the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is the purest of…

At the time of death, with an unwavering mind, endowed with devotion, by the power of Yoga, fixing the whole life-breath in the middle of the two eyebrows, he reaches that resplendent Supreme Person.

The Yogi gets immense inner strength and power of concentration. His mind becomes ite steady through constant practice of concentration and meditation. He practises concentration first on the lower Chakras, viz.,…

As the sun, I give heat; I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and also death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.

I radiate heat in the form of the sun. I send forth the rain in the form of Indra in the rainy season and I take it back during the rest of the year.Sat Existence, the manifested world (the effect).Asat Nonexistence, the…

The embodied one, having crossed beyond these three Gunas from which the body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay, and pain, and attains immortality.

Just as a river is absorbed in the ocean, so also he who has, while still alive, gone beyond the alities which form the seed from which all bodies have sprung and of which they are composed, is absorbed in Me. He ever…

The contact of the senses with the objects, O son of Kunti, which causes heat and cold, pleasure and pain, has a beginning and an end; they are impermanent; endure them bravely, O Arjuna.

-- Cold is pleasant at one time and painful at another. Heat is pleasant in winter but painful in summer. The same object that gives pleasure at one time gives pain at another time. So the sensecontacts that give rise to…

That firm man, whom surely these afflictions do not, O chief among men, to whom pleasure and pain are the same, is fit for attaining immortality.

-- Dehadhyasa or identification of the Self with the body is the cause of pleasure and pain. The more you are able to identify yourself with the immortal, allpervading Self, the less will you be affected by the pairs of…

Know that to be indestructible, by which all this is pervaded. No one can cause the destruction of that, the Imperishable.

That which pervades this entire universe is imperishable. No one can destroy the eternal Self. Bodies perish, but the indwelling Reality does not. Knowing this, grief over what seems lost loses its force.

This Self cannot be cut, burned, wetted, nor dried up; it is eternal, all-pervasive, stable, immovable, and ancient.

The Self is very subtle. It is beyond the reach of speech and mind. It is very difficult to understand this subtle Self. So Lord Krishna explains the nature of the immortal Self in a variety of ways with various…

O son of Pritha, this is the eternal state, the Brahmic seat. Attaining this, one is not deluded. Being established in it, one attains oneness with Brahman even at the end of life.

The state described in the previous verse -- to renounce everything and to live in Brahman -- is the Brahmic state or the state of Brahman. If one attains to this state one is never deluded. He attains Moksha if he stays…

My womb is the great Brahma; in it I place the germ; thence, O Arjuna, is the birth of all beings.

My womb is the great Nature. The cosmos is evolved out of His Nature. Nature is called the great Brahma for She is the resting place of the five subtle elements and also the Mahat (cosmic mind). She is callled the great…

Dhritarashtra said, "What did my people and the sons of Pandu do when they had assembled together, eager for battle, on the holy plain of Kurukshetra, O Sanjaya?"

Dharmakshetra -- that place which protects Dharma is Dharmakshetra. Because it was in the land of the Kurus, it was called Kurukshetra.Sanjaya is one who has conered likes and dislikes and who is impartial.

Sanjaya said: Having seen the army of the Pandavas drawn up in battle array, King Duryodhana approached his teacher, Drona, and spoke these words.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind from birth. Unfortunately, he was also bereft of spiritual vision. He knew very well that his sons were equally blind in the matter of religion, and he was sure that they could never reach an…

Behold, O Teacher! This mighty army of the sons of Pandu, arrayed by the son of Drupada, thy wise disciple.

Duryodhana, a great diplomat, wanted to point out the defects of Droṇācārya, the great brāhmaṇa commander in chief. Droṇācārya had some political quarrel with King Drupada, the father of Draupadī, who was Arjuna’s wife.…

Here are heroes, mighty archers, equal in battle to Bhima and Arjuna, Yuyudhana (Satyaki), Virata, and Drupada—all mighty warriors.

Technically, maharatha means a warrior who is proficient in the science of war and who is able to fight alone with ten thousand archers.

Dhrishtaketu, Chekitana, the valiant king of Kasi, Purujit, Kuntibhoja, and Saibya—the best of men.

The strong Yudhamanyu and the brave Uttamaujas, the son of Subhadra (Abhimanyu, the son of Subhadra and Arjuna), and the sons of Draupadi, all of them great charioteers (great heroes)."

Know also, O best among the twice-born! the names of those who are the most distinguished amongst ourselves, the leaders of my army; these I name to you for your information.

And also many other heroes, ready to give up their lives for my sake, armed with various weapons and missiles, all well-skilled in battle.

As far as the others are concerned – like Jayadratha, Kṛtavarmā and Śalya – all are determined to lay down their lives for Duryodhana’s sake. In other words, it is already concluded that all of them would die in the…

Our army, marshalled by Bhishma, is insufficient, whereas theirs, marshalled by Bhima, is sufficient.

The verse is differently interpreted by different commentators. Sridhara Swami takes the word aparyaptam to mean insufficient. Ananda Giri takes it to mean unlimited.

Therefore, do all of you, stationed in your respective positions in the several divisions of the army, protect Bhishma alone.

Duryodhana, after praising the prowess of Bhīṣma, further considered that others might think that they had been considered less important, so in his usual diplomatic way, he tried to adjust the situation in the above…

His glorious grandsire, the oldest of the Kauravas, roared like a lion to cheer Duryodhana and blew his conch.

The grandsire of the Kuru dynasty could understand the inner meaning of the heart of his grandson Duryodhana, and out of his natural compassion for him he tried to cheer him by blowing his conchshell very loudly,…

Then, suddenly, conches, kettledrums, tabors, drums, and cow horns blared forth from the Kaurava side, and the sound was tremendous.

Then, Madhava (Krishna) and the son of Pandu (Arjuna), seated in the magnificent chariot yoked with white horses, blew divine conches.

In contrast with the conchshell blown by Bhīṣmadeva, the conchshells in the hands of Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are described as transcendental. The sounding of the transcendental conchshells indicated that there was no hope of…

Hrishikesha blew the Panchajanya, Arjuna blew the Devadatta, and Bhima, the wolf-bellied doer of terrible deeds, blew the great conch Paundra.

Lord Kṛṣṇa is referred to as Hṛṣīkeśa in this verse because He is the owner of all senses. The living entities are part and parcel of Him, and therefore the senses of the living entities are also part and parcel of His…