Bg. 1.43

BG 1.43

Devanagari

उत्सन्नकुलधर्माणां मनुष्याणां जनार्दन । नरके नियतं वासो भवतीत्यनुश‍ुश्रुम ॥ ४३ ॥

Verse text

utsanna-kula-dharmāṇāṁ manuṣyāṇāṁ janārdana narake niyataṁ vāso bhavatīty anuśuśruma

Synonyms

utsanna spoiled ; kula-dharmāṇām of those who have the family traditions ; manuṣyāṇām of such men ; janārdana O Kṛṣṇa ; narake in hell ; niyatam always ; vāsaḥ residence ; bhavati it so becomes ; iti thus ; anuśuśruma I have heard by disciplic succession.

Translation

O Kṛṣṇa, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those whose family traditions are destroyed dwell always in hell.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

43. O Janārdana, we have heard that those men whose family rules are destroyed live in hell permamently.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

43. O Janārdana, we have heard that those men whose family rules, varṇa and āśrāma rules are destroyed live in hell permamently.

Translation (Bhurijana Dasa)

O Krsna, maintainer of the people, I have heard by disciplic succession that those who destroy family traditions dwell always in hell.

Purport

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.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

In this verse the phrase kula dharma stands for jāti dharma and āśrāma dharma as well. We have heard from the mouth of the guru (anuśuśruma) about this, with such words as the following: prāyaścittam akurvāṇāḥ pāpeṣu niratā narāḥ apaścāt-tāpinaḥ kaṣṭān nirayān yānti dāruṇān Those who do not perform prāyaścittas after engaging in sins, and are not repentant, go to the most terrible hells. [Note: This is quoted by Śrīdhara Svāmī.]