Bhagavad-gītā 2.11

Explain simply

Speaker: Śrī Kṛṣṇa

श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे ।
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥११॥

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

Word for word (synonyms)

śrī bhagavān uvāca
the Supreme Personality of Godhead said
aśocyān
that which is not worthy of lamentation
anvaśocaḥ
you are lamenting
tvam
you
prajñā-vādān
learned talks
ca
also
bhāṣase
speaking
gata
lost
asūn
life
agata
not past
asūn
life
ca
also
na
never
anuśocanti
lament
paṇḍitāḥ
the learned

Translation

The Blessed Lord said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead.

Defined in the Gītā

The learned

Who is truly learned?

One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every act is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker whose fruitive action is burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.

Bhagavad-gītā 4.19

See the definition

Purport

The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool. The Lord said, you are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned—one who knows what is body and what is soul—does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition. As it will be explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. And, because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.

What this verse teaches

Don’t lament unnecessarily, all individuals exist eternally and changing bodies is natural.

Gita for Life
Grief
Śrīla Prabhupāda lectures 10

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda © The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International.