2.11 You speak like a wise man Krishna speaks
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे
गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः
aśhochyān-anvaśhochas-tvaṁ prajñā-vādānśh cha bhāṣhase
gatāsūn-agatāsūnśh-cha nānuśhochanti paṇḍitāḥ
You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and you speak, meanwhile, like a wise man. The wise mourn neither the living nor the dead.
Explanation
You speak, meanwhile, like a wise man.
The rebuke is not gentle, but look at what it objects to. Not the grief — the eloquence.
Arjuna has produced sixteen verses of sophisticated argument from a state of collapse, and Krishna's first substantive move is to separate the two: the reasoning is good and it is not why he is sitting down.
Going further
Word by word
- śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
- the Supreme Lord said
- aśhochyān
- not worthy of grief
- anvaśhochaḥ
- are mourning
- tvam
- you
- prajñā-vādān
- words of wisdom
- cha
- and
- bhāṣhase
- speaking
- gata āsūn
- the dead
- agata asūn
- the living
- cha
- and
- na
- never
- anuśhochanti
- lament
- paṇḍitāḥ
- the wise
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Krishna's first words are a rebuke, and not a gentle one. But look at what he actually objects to. Not the grief — the combination. Arjuna has just delivered a long, articulate, morally sophisticated argument for why he should not fight. Krishna's answer is: you are talking like a wise man and behaving like a man in pieces.
The gap between what we can argue and what we can do is the subject of this entire chapter.