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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.36
avācya-vādāṃś ca bahūn vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ | nindantas tava sāmarthyaṃ tato duḥkhataraṃ nu kim
Translation. And your enemies will utter many kinds of unspeakable remarks,
disparaging your battle-prowess. What indeed could be more painful than that?
Grammar check: 13 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
|---|
| avācya-vādān | avācya-vāda | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| bahūn | bahu | pass |
| vadiṣyanti | vad | pass |
| tava | tvad | pass |
| ahitāḥ | ahita | pass |
| nindantaḥ | nindat | pass |
| tava | tvad | pass |
| sāmarthyam | sāmarthya | pass |
| tatas | tatas | pass |
| duḥkhataram | duḥkhatara | pass |
| nu | nu | pass |
| kim | kim | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
Take avācya-vāda as a karmadhāraya meaning an utterance that ought not to be uttered, not as “blameless discourse.”→ “unspeakable remarks,” with avācya adjectivally qualifying vāda
gita [1]avācya-vādān avaktavya-vādāṃś ca
“Avācya-vādān—that is, statements which ought not to be uttered.”
Render bahūn as indicating many different kinds, not merely a large aggregate.→ “many kinds of”
gita [1]bahūn aneka-prakārān
“Many—that is, of numerous kinds.”
Take tava with ahitāḥ and understand the latter substantivally as “your enemies.” Its internal privative analysis is na hitaḥ, a nañ-tatpuruṣa.→ “your enemies”
gita [1]tavāhitāḥ śatravaḥ
“Your ahitāḥ—that is, enemies.”
Construe nindantaḥ as an active participle modifying the enemies and sāmarthyam as its accusative object. The second tava means “your,” and the ability in question is Arjuna’s demonstrated battle-prowess.→ “disparaging your battle-prowess”
gita [1]nindantaḥ kutsayantaḥ tava tvadīyaṃ sāmarthyaṃ nivāta-kavacādi-yuddha-nimittam
“Nindantaḥ means disparaging; [they disparage] your—belonging to you—prowess, associated with the battles against the Nivāta-kavacas and others.”
Read tatas ablativally as the standard of comparison, referring to the pain arising from being censured. The final question is rhetorical: no pain is greater than that.→ “What could be more painful than that?”
gita [2]tatas tasmāt nindā-prāpter duḥkhāt duḥkhataraṃ nu kim ? tataḥ kaṣṭataraṃ duḥkhaṃ nāstīty arthaḥ
“Tatas means than that pain arising from being subjected to censure: what indeed is more painful? The meaning is that no pain harsher than that exists.”
Treat nu as an emphatic interrogative particle rather than as temporal “now.”
→ “indeed”
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1avācya-vādān avaktavya-vādāṃś ca bahūn aneka-prakārān vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ śatravaḥ nindantaḥ kutsayantaḥ tava tvadīyaṃ sāmarthyaṃ nivāta-kavacādi-yuddha-nimittam |
2tatas tasmāt nindā-prāpter duḥkhāt duḥkhataraṃ nu kim ? tataḥ kaṣṭataraṃ duḥkhaṃ nāstīty arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.36||
3yurā punaḥ kriyamāṇe karṇādibhiḥ-