BHAGAVAD GEETA: 58 - Swami Advayanandaji.

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BHAGAVAD GEETA 

Chapter - 2

Discourse – 2 (72 Slogas)

“Yoga of the SUPREME SELF”

Sri Veda Vyasaji

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Tuesday 20, Feb 2024 06:40.

2.7   ARJUNA’S SWADHARMA CLARIFIED 

( Slogas : 31-38, 8 No.) 

Post - 58.

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Slogam - 36: iii) Dishonour From One’s Enemies 

"Avaachya-vaadaan cha bahoon vadishyanti tava ahitaah;

  indatah tava saamarthyam tatah duhkhataram nu kim."

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Translation:

1. 

Avaachya-vaadaan cha bahoon  =  And many words that should not be spoken

2. 

vadishyanti tava ahitaah;  =  will be uttered by your enemies, 

3.

nindatah tava saamarthyam  =  caviling (belittling) your powers. 

4.

tatah duhkhataram nu kim.  =  What, indeed, can be more painful than this? 

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Commentary:

Dishonour From Enemies;

 Thirdly, we have ‘Ahitaah’, his sworn enemies, dishonouring him.  

This will be the worst to bear. The enemies will not be restrained and polished like 

his friends would be. They will taunt him and mock at his cowardice. They would laugh and 

jeer at him. They will have foul words to say about him. “You will become a laughing stock at 

their drinking parties. Who is going to restrain his tongue and couch his words at a party?” 

Enemies are very good at mocking. They will say that all of Arjuna’s previous battles were 

just ‘flukes’.  

Acharyaji gave as an example of this the performance of a tailender in cricket. 

Everyone knows that tailenders in the batting line-up are good for nothing. But still you get 

the occasional tailender who swings his bat wildly and gets a six. Such people can get 3-4 

sixes like that in a row. However well-played those shots may have been, people will always 

just call them ‘fluke’-shots! People will not credit him for them. In this way, Arjuna will be 

taunted and ridiculed over his previous successes. 

There is a saying in the Tirukkural, the great Tamil poem written by Tiruvalluvar. It 

goes: “It is said that in a deer if even a single hair falls from its body, it loses its life.” This has 

no literal truth in it; its meaning is symbolic. It means that in life people often forget all 

one’s virtues, and speak only of his single vice. That is sufficient to ruin a man’s reputation. 

The infamy we earn goes down to our children and to their children. Imagine a child 

at school being told by another child, “O, you are Arjuna’s grandson? – the Arjuna that 

retreated from the battlefield!”

*****

Next

Slogam - 37: Fight! – There’s Victory Either Way 

Continued

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