Sunday, September 13, 2015

Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2/Verse 2

श्रीभगवानुवाच

कुतस्त्वा कश्मलमिदं विषमे समुपस्थितम् ।

अनार्यजुष्टमस्वर्ग्यमकीर्तिकरमर्जुन ॥२- २॥

śrībhagavānuvāca

kutastvā kaśmalamidaṃ viṣame samupasthitam ।
anāryajuṣṭamasvargyamakīrtikaramarjuna ॥2- 2॥

The Blessed Lord said, from where has this dejection of your mind come in difficulty? O Arjuna [it is] acceptable for a non-āryan, not leading to heaven, [and] causing disgrace. 


Word-for-word translation


śrībhagavān (śrī + bhagavān) (compound) (nominative, singular) = Blessed Lord [epithet of Krishna]


uvāca (past tense verb, 3rd person, singular) = said


kutas (indeclinable) (adverb) = from where


tvā (pronoun, 2nd person, accusative, singular) = you 


kaśmalam (accusative, singular) = dejection of the mind


idam (demonstrative pronoun, accusative, singular) = this 


viṣame (locative, singular) = in difficulty  


samupasthitam (accusative, singular) = come


anāryajuṣṭam (anārya + juṣṭam) (compound) (past passive participle, nominative, singular) = acceptable for a non-āryan

asvargyam (nominative, singular) = not leading to heaven 

akīrtikaram (akīrti + karam) (compound) (nominative, singular) = causing disgrace

arjuna (vocative, singular) = O Arjuna


Commentary


The word "non-āryan" has a lot of scholarly controversy around it arguing whether the āryans came into the Vedic culture from outside or were a class of people within the Vedic culture. There is also a lot of misconception surrounding the word from the Nazi-era and the Nazi abuse of the word. It is just best to know that it was not flattering for someone to take on "non-āryan" qualities at the time the Bhagavad Gita was written. 

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