Bhagavad Gita 1.43दोषैरेतैः कुलघ्नानां वर्णसङ्करकारकैः।उत्साद्यन्ते जातिधर्माः कुलधर्माश्च शाश्वताः ॥
doṣhair etaiḥ kula-ghnānāṁ varṇa-saṅkara-kārakaiḥ
utsādyante jāti-dharmāḥ kula-dharmāśh cha śhāśhvatāḥ
Sanskrit recitation
When the body freezes · 1.28–1.47 · Teaching
Translation
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.
Hindi translation
इन वर्णसंकर पैदा करनेवाले दोषोंसे कुलघातियों के सदा से चलते आये कुलधर्म और जातिधर्म नष्ट हो जाते हैं।
Meaning
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 helped by the right person who is already established in that knowledge. There is a system in the varṇāśrama institution by which before death one has to undergo the process of atonement for his sinful activities. One who is always engaged in sinful activities must utilize the process of atonement, called prāyaścitta. Without doing so, one surely will be transferred to hellish planets to undergo miserable lives as the result of sinful activities.
After A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
When the body freezes· 1.28–1.47→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 1.28Arjuna said, "O Krishna, seeing my kinsmen arrayed here, eager to fight,
- 1.29My limbs fail, my mouth is parched, my body quivers, and my hair stands on end.
- 1.30The Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over; I am unable to stand, and my…
- 1.31And I see ill omens, O Kesava. I do not see any good in slaying my kinsmen in battle.
- 1.32I desire not victory, O Krishna, nor kingdom, nor pleasures. What use is dominion to us, O…
- 1.33Those for whose sake we desire kingdom, enjoyments, and pleasures stand here in battle,…
- 1.34Teachers, fathers, sons, and grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons,…
- 1.35These I do not wish to kill, O Krishna, even though they kill me, for the sake of dominion…
- 1.36By killing these sons of Dhritarashtra, what pleasure could be ours, O Janardana? Only sin…
- 1.37Therefore, we should not kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our relatives; for how can we be…
- 1.38Though they, with intelligence overpowered by greed, see no evil in the destruction of…
- 1.39Why should we not, who clearly see the evil in the destruction of families, learn to turn…
- 1.40In the destruction of a family, the immemorial religious rites of that family perish; on…
- 1.41O Krishna, by the prevalence of impiety, the women of the family become corrupt; and, when…
- 1.42Confusion of castes leads to hell for the slayers of the family, for their forebears fall,…
1.43By these evil deeds of the destroyers of the family, which cause confusion of castes, the…
- 1.44We have heard, O Janardana, that those men in whose families the religious practices have…
- 1.45Alas! We are involved in a great sin, for we are prepared to kill our kinsmen, out of…
- 1.46If the sons of Dhritarashtra, with weapons in hand, should slay me in battle, unresisting…
- 1.47Sanjaya said, Having thus spoken in the midst of the battlefield, Arjuna cast away his bow…
Word-by-word→
- cha
- and
- etaiḥ
- these
- doṣhaiḥ
- through evil deeds
- kārakaiḥ
- causing
- utsādyante
- are ruined
- kula-ghnānām
- of those who destroy the family
- kula-dharmāḥ
- family traditions
- jāti-dharmāḥ
- social and family welfare activities
- śhāśhvatāḥ
- eternal
- varṇa-saṅkara
- unwanted progeny
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