Bg. 2.27 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च । तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥ २७ ॥

Verse text

jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca tasmād aparihārye ’rthe na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi

Synonyms

jātasya — of one who has taken his birth ; hi — certainly ; dhruvaḥ — a fact ; mṛtyuḥ — death ; dhruvam — it is also a fact ; janma — birth ; mṛtasya — of the dead ; ca — also ; tasmāt — therefore ; aparihārye — of that which is unavoidable ; arthe — in the matter ; na — do not ; tvam — you ; śocitum — to lament ; arhasi — deserve.

Translation

One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

27. For what is born, death is certain. For what is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, since both are unavoidable, you should not lament.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

27. For what is born, death is certain. For what is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, since both are unavoidable, you should not lament.

Purport

One has to take birth according to one’s activities of life. And after finishing one term of activities, one has to die to take birth for the next. In this way one is going through one cycle of birth and death after another without liberation. This cycle of birth and death does not, however, support unnecessary murder, slaughter and war. But at the same time, violence and war are inevitable factors in human society for keeping law and order. The Battle of Kurukṣetra, being the will of the Supreme, was an inevitable event, and to fight for the right cause is the duty of a kṣatriya. Why should he be afraid of or aggrieved at the death of his relatives since he was discharging his proper duty? He did not deserve to break the law, thereby becoming subjected to the reactions of sinful acts, of which he was so afraid. By avoiding the discharge of his proper duty, he would not be able to stop the death of his relatives, and he would be degraded due to his selection of the wrong path of action.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Since (hi) death is certain (dhruvaḥ) with the depletion of karmas meant for this life, and birth is also certain because of the karma accrued by that body which just died— since both death and birth are unavoidable (aparihārye arthe)—do not lament.

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

The body is redundant and the ātmā is eternal. Birth is combination of ātmā with previously non-existing senses and body. Death is the separation of the ātmā from that body with its senses. Because birth and death both arise from performance of dharma and adharma, birth and death primarily belong to a substrata or shelter of dharma and adharma which must be eternal. Birth and death belong secondarily to the body. If the soul were not eternal (lasting only one lifetime), it could not be accepted as the substrate of dharma and adharma, because then it could have no acquisition of results to actions previously performed and simultaneously it would acquire effects not caused by actions previously performed. This is the view of the logicians (follows of Gautama’s Nyāya philosophy). Even in their view, one should give up lamenting for the ātmā. Hi in this verse indicates cause. For the eternal element, the ātmā, which attains birth (jātasya) by accepting a body under the laws of karma, death is certain with the destruction of those karmas. After death, birth is certain, caused by the karmas of the previous body. This is impossible to avoid (aparihārye). For this reason (arthe), because ātmā has the very nature of birth and death, you, being learned, should not lament. Even if you decline to fight, these people will die with the exhaustion of their present karmas. But you will have deviated from your duty of fighting.