दोषैरेतैः कुलघ्नानां वर्णसंकरकारकैः ।उत्साद्यन्ते जातिधर्माः कुलधर्माश्च शाश्वताः ॥
doṣairetaiḥ kulaghnānāṁ varṇasaṁkarakārakaiḥutsādyante jātidharmāḥ kuladharmāśca śāśvatāḥ
By these misdeeds of the ruiners of the family leading to the confusion of the orders, the eternal laws of the race and moral law of the family are destroyed.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
AI translation
His translation
“O Krishna, I behold these kinsmen and friends arrayed in hostile arms and my limbs sink beneath me and my face grows dry, and there are shudderings in my body and my hair stands on end, Gandeva falls from my hand and my very skin is on fire. Yea I cannot stand, my brain whirls and evil omens, O Késhove, meet mine eyes. I can see no blessing for me, having slain my kin in fight. I desire not victory, O Krishna, no nor kingship nor delights. What shall we do with kingship, O Govinda, what with enjoyments, what with life? They for whose sake we desire kingship and enjoyments and delight, lo they all stand in battle against us casting behind them their riches and their lives, our teachers and our fathers and our sons, our grandsires and uncles and the fathers of our wives and our grandsons and our wives’ brothers and the kin of our beloved. These though they slay me, O Madhusudan, I would not slay, no not for the empire of heaven and space and hell, much less for this poor earth of ours. Slaying the sons of Dhritarashtra what joy would be left to us, O Janardana? Sin, sin alone would find lodging in us, if we slew these though our adversaries & foes. Therefore we do not right to slay the children of Dhritarashtra and their friends, for how can we be happy, O Madhove, if we slay our kin? Even though these see not, for their hearts are swept away by greed, error done in the ruin of one’s house and grievous sin in treachery to natural friends, how shall we not understand and turn back from this sin, we who have eyes, O Janardan, for error done in the ruin of our house? When the family dwindles, the eternal ideals of the race are lost, and when ideals are lost, unrighteousness besets the whole race; in the prevalence of unrighteousness, O Krishna, the women of the race go astray, and when women grow corrupt, bastard confusion is born again; but confusion brings the slayers of their race and the race itself to very hell; for the long line of fathers perishes and the food ceases and the water is given no more. By these their sins who bring their race to perdition, fathers they of bastard confusion, the eternal ideals of the nation and the hearth are overthrown; and for men who have lost the ancient righteousnesses of the race, in hell an eternal habitation is set apart, ‘tis told. Alas a dreadful sin have we set ourselves to do, that from greed of lordship and pleasure we have made ready to slay our own kin. Yea even if the sons of Dhritarashtra slay me with their armèd hands, me unarmed and unresisting, it were better & more fortunate for me than this.”
Essays on the Gita
The first result is a violent sensational and physical crisis which produces a disgust of the action and its material objects and of life itself. He rejects the vital aim pursued by egoistic humanity in its action,1·32–40 —happiness and enjoyment; he rejects the vital aim of the Kshatriya, victory and rule and power and the government of men. What after all is this fight for justice when reduced to its practical terms, but just this, a fight for the interests of himself, his brothers and his party, for possession and enjoyment and rule? But at such a cost these things are not worth having. For they are of no value in themselves, but only as a means to the right maintenance of social and national life and it is these very aims that in the person of his kin and his race he is about to destroy. And then comes the cry of the emotions. These are they for whose sake life and happiness are desired, our “own people”.1·28 Who would consent to slay these for the sake of all the earth, or even for the kingdom of the three worlds? What pleasure can there be in life, what happiness, what satisfaction in oneself after such a deed? The whole thing is a dreadful sin,—for now the moral sense awakens to justify the revolt of the sensations and the emotions. It is a sin, there is no right nor justice in mutual slaughter; especially are those who are to be slain the natural objects of reverence and of love, those without whom one would not care to live, and to violate these sacred feelings can be no virtue, can be nothing but a heinous crime. Granted that the offence, the aggression, the first sin, the crimes of greed and selfish passion which have brought things to such a pass came from the other side; yet armed resistance to wrong under such circumstances would be itself a sin and crime worse than theirs because they are blinded by passion and unconscious of guilt, while on this side it would be with a clear sense of guilt that the sin would be committed. And for what? For the maintenance of family morality, of the social law and the law of the nation? These are the very standards that will be destroyed by this civil war; the family itself will be brought to the point of annihilation, corruption of morals and loss of the purity of race will be engendered,1·38–42 the eternal laws of the race and moral law of the family will be destroyed. Ruin of the race, the collapse of its high traditions, ethical degradation and hell for the authors of such a crime, these are the only practical results possible of this monstrous civil strife. “Therefore,” cries Arjuna, casting down the divine bow and inexhaustible quiver given to him by the gods for that tremendous hour,1·46 “it is more for my welfare that the sons of Dhritarashtra armed should slay me unarmed and unresisting. I will not fight.”
Arjuna is the Kshatriya, the rajasic man who governs his rajasic action by a high sattwic ideal. He advances to this gigantic struggle, to this Kurukshetra with the full acceptance of the1·22 joy of battle, as to “a holiday of fight”, but with a proud confidence in the righteousness of his cause; he advances in his rapid chariot tearing the hearts of his enemies with the victorious1·14–15 clamour of his war-conch; for he wishes to look upon all these1·22–23 Kings of men who have come here to champion against him the cause of unrighteousness and establish as a rule of life the disregard of law, justice and truth which they would replace by the rule of a selfish and arrogant egoism. When this confidence is shattered within him, when he is smitten down from his customary attitude and mental basis of life, it is by the uprush of the tamasic quality into the rajasic man, inducing a recoil of astonishment, grief, horror, dismay, dejection, bewilderment of the mind and the war of reason against itself, a collapse towards the principle of ignorance and inertia. As a result he turns towards renunciation. Better the life of the mendicant living upon alms than this dharma2·5 of the Kshatriya, this battle and action culminating in undiscriminating massacre, this principle of mastery and glory and power which can only be won by destruction and bloodshed, this conquest of blood-stained enjoyments, this vindication of justice and right by a means which contradicts all righteousness and this affirmation of the social law by a war which destroys in its process and result all that constitutes society.
Writings in Bengali
doṣairetaiḥ kulaghnānāṁ varṇasaṅkarakārakaiḥ
utsādyante jātidharmāḥ kuladharmāśca śāśvatāḥ (42)
By these deeds of the destroyers of the family, which cause intermixture of castes, the eternal laws of the race and the family are destroyed.
But in support of his own weakness Arjuna discovered another higher argument; destruction of the family and destruction will take place in this war; therefore this war is not a righteous war, it is an unrighteous war. In this fratricide there is hostility to friends, that is, harm is done to those who are naturally favourable and helpful; moreover destruction of one’s own family, that is, the Kshatriya family and race called Kuru in which both sides are born, is accomplished. In ancient times the nation was mostly founded on blood relationship. A great family expanding turned into a nation; for example the Bhoja race, the Kuru race etc. were particular families within the Indian nation which became powerful nations. Arjuna called the internal conflict and doing harm to one another within the family hostility to friends. On the one hand this hostility to friends is a great sin in the moral sense; on the other hand in the economic sense the destruction of the family which is the inevitable result of this great fault involved in hostility to friends. The proper observance of the eternal family duties is the cause of the progress and stability of the family; if the high ideal and order of work which the ancestors have established and preserved in domestic life and in the political field are harmed or the discipline is relaxed, the downfall of the family takes place. As long as the family remains fortunate and powerful, this ideal and order of work are preserved; if the family becomes weak and feeble, there is relaxation in high duties due to the spread of tamasic nature; as a result anarchy, corruption etc. faults enter the family; the ladies of the family become unchaste and the purity of the family is lost; sons are begotten in the great family by men of low caste and low character. By that the ancestors fall from the world of ancestors being deprived of the true progeny of the destroyers of the family and due to the spread of unrighteousness, moral degradation and spread of low qualities born of admixture of castes and faults like anarchy etc. the whole family also is destroyed and becomes fit for hell. Racial duties and family duties both are destroyed in the destruction of the family. Racial duty means the eternal ideal and order of work coming down from generation to generation of the great nation which is formed by the aggregate of all families. After that Arjuna again declaring his first decision and determination regarding duty sat down in the chariot abandoning the Gandiva even at the time of war. The poet hinted in the last verse of this chapter that Arjuna had resolved on such non-Aryan conduct unbecoming a Kshatriya because his intelligence was confused by grief.
দোষৈরেতৈঃ কুলঘ্নানাং বর্ণসঙ্করকারকৈঃ।
উৎসাদ্যন্তে জাতিধর্ম্মাঃ কুলধর্ম্মাশ্চ শাশ্বতাঃ।।৪২।।
কিন্তু স্বীয় দুর্ব্বলতার সমর্থনে অর্জ্জুন আর এক উচ্চতর যুক্তি আবিষ্কার করিলেন, এই যুদ্ধে কুলনাশ ও জাতিনাশ হইবে, অতএব এই যুদ্ধ ধর্ম্মযুদ্ধ নহে, অধর্ম্মযুদ্ধ। এই ভ্রাতৃহত্যায় মিত্রদ্রোহ, অর্থাৎ যাঁহারা স্বভাবতঃ অনুকূল ও সহায়, তাঁহাদের অনিষ্ট করা হয়, উপরন্তু স্বীয় কুল অর্থাৎ যে কুরুনামক ক্ষত্রিয় বংশ ও জাতিতে উভয় পক্ষের জন্ম হইয়াছে, তাহার বিনাশ সাধিত হয়। প্রাচীন কালে জাতি প্রায়ই রক্তের সম্বন্ধের উপর প্রতিষ্ঠিত ছিল। এক মহান্ কুল বিস্তার পাইয়া জাতিতে পরিণত হইত, যেমন ভোজবংশ, কুরুবংশ ইত্যাদি ভারত-জাতির অন্তর্গত কুলবিশেষ এক-একটী বলশালী জাতি হইয়াছিল। কুলের মধ্যে যে অন্তর্বিরোধ ও পরস্পরের অনিষ্টকরণ তাহাকেই অর্জ্জুন মিত্রদ্রোহ নামে অভিহিত করিলেন। একে এই মিত্রদ্রোহ নৈতিক হিসাবে মহাপাপ, তাহাতে অর্থনীতিক হিসাবে এই মহান্ দোষ মিত্রদ্রোহে সন্নিবিষ্ট যে কুলক্ষয় তাহার অবশ্যম্ভাবী ফল। সনাতন কুলধর্ম্মের সম্যক্ পালন কুলের উন্নতির ও অবস্থিতির কারণ, যে মহৎ আদর্শ ও কর্ম্মশৃঙ্খলা গার্হস্থ্যজীবনে ও রাজনীতিক ক্ষেত্রে পিতৃপুরুষগণ স্থাপিত ও রক্ষিত করিয়া আসিতেছেন, সেই আদর্শের হানি বা শৃঙ্খলার শিথিলীকরণ হইলে কুলের অধঃপতন হয়। কুল যতদিন সৌভাগ্যবান ও বলশালী হইয়া থাকে, ততদিন এই আদর্শ ও কর্ম্মশৃঙ্খলা রক্ষিত হয়, কুল ক্ষীণ ও দুর্ব্বল হইয়া পড়িলে তমোভাবের প্রসারণে মহান্ ধর্ম্মে শিথিলতা হয়, তাহার ফলে অরাজকতা, দুর্নীতি ইত্যাদি দোষ কুলে প্রবিষ্ট হয়, কুলের মহিলাগণ দুশ্চরিত্রা হয় এবং কুলের পবিত্রতা নষ্ট হয়, নীচজাতীয় ও নীচচরিত্রবিশিষ্ট লোকের ঔরসে মহান্ কুলে পুত্রোৎপাদন হয়। তাহাতে পিতৃপুরুষের প্রকৃত সন্ততিচ্ছেদে কুলহন্তাদের নরকপ্রাপ্তি হয় এবং অধর্ম্মের প্রসারে, বর্ণসঙ্করসম্ভূত নৈতিক অধোগতি ও নীচ গুণের বিস্তারে এবং অরাজকতা প্রভৃতি দোষে সমস্ত কুলও বিনাশপ্রাপ্ত হয় এবং নরকপ্রাপ্তির যোগ্য হয়। জাতিধর্ম্ম ও কুলধর্ম্ম উভয়ই কুলনাশে নষ্ট হয়। জাতিধর্ম্ম অর্থাৎ সমস্ত কুলসমষ্টিতে যে মহান্ জাতি হয়, সেই জাতির পুরুষপরম্পরায় আগত সনাতন আদর্শ ও কর্ম্মশৃঙ্খলা। তাহার পরে অর্জ্জুন আবার তাঁহার প্রথম সিদ্ধান্ত ও কর্ত্তব্য-কর্ম্মবিষয়ক নিশ্চয় জ্ঞাপন করিয়া যুদ্ধের সময়েই গাণ্ডীব পরিত্যাগ করিয়া রথে বসিয়া পড়িলেন। কবি এই অধ্যায়ের শেষ শ্লোকে ইঙ্গিত করিয়া জানাইলেন যে, শোকে তাঁহার বুদ্ধিবিভ্রাট হইয়াছিল বলিয়া অর্জ্জুন এইরূপ
Evening talks
Disciple: _In the first chapter of the Gita Arjuna speaks of kula dharma, jāti dharma – what is meant by kula dharma here?_
Sri Aurobindo: Kula is the family or clan as the _kuru kula_. Each clan had its own standards and ideals of conduct, which were known as the _dharma_ of the clan. It is difficult to say what Arjuna exactly meant by _jāti_; its root meaning refers to birth – those who were originated from the same stock. It might mean caste or race.* But the distinction is not important – what Arjuna referred to were the current social standards.
