2.34 Dishonour is worse than dying Krishna speaks
अकीर्तिं चापि भूतानि कथयिष्यन्ति तेऽव्ययाम्
संभावितस्य चाकीर्तिर्मरणादतिरिच्यते
akīrtiṁ chāpi bhūtāni
kathayiṣhyanti te ’vyayām
sambhāvitasya chākīrtir
maraṇād atirichyate
People will speak of your disgrace, and it will not be forgotten. For one who has been honoured, dishonour is worse than dying.
Explanation
Dishonour is worse than dying.
Krishna spends 2.31 to 2.37 on reputation and what people will say, and it sits oddly beside the metaphysics.
It is worth not tidying away. The Gita is willing to use shame on a man it has just told that nothing real can be lost, and it does not apologise for the mixture.
Going further
Word by word
- akīrtim
- infamy
- cha
- and
- api
- also
- bhūtāni
- people
- kathayiṣhyanti
- will speak
- te
- of your
- avyayām
- everlasting
- sambhāvitasya
- of a respectable person
- cha
- and
- akīrtiḥ
- infamy
- maraṇāt
- than death
- atirichyate
- is greater
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Krishna spends 2.31 to 2.37 on reputation, disgrace, and what people will say — and it sits oddly beside the metaphysics that came before.
It is worth reading as pragmatism rather than principle. He has just offered Arjuna the deepest available argument and Arjuna has not moved. So he tries a shallower one that might actually reach a warrior on a battlefield: your name will not survive this. The Gita is willing to meet someone where they are, even when that is somewhere less elevated than where the chapter started.