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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.37
hato vā prāpsyasi svargaṃ jitvā vā bhokṣyase mahīm | tasmād uttiṣṭha kaunteya yuddhāya kṛta-niścayaḥ
Translation. If slain, you will attain heaven (svarga);
or, having conquered [Karṇa and the other heroes], you will enjoy the earth.
Therefore arise, son of Kuntī, for battle,
your resolve made.
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 |
|---|
| hataḥ | hata | pass |
| vā | vā | pass |
| prāpsyasi | āp | pass |
| svargam | svarga | pass |
| jitvā | ji | pass |
| vā | vā | pass |
| bhokṣyase | bhuj | pass |
| mahīm | mahī | pass |
| tasmāt | tasmāt | pass |
| uttiṣṭha | sthā | pass |
| kaunteya | kaunteya | pass |
| yuddhāya | yuddha | pass |
| kṛta-niścayaḥ | kṛta-niścaya | 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.
Hataḥ is passive and predicative of the implicit ‘you’: under vā it supplies the conditional sense ‘if slain,’ not ‘having killed.’ Svargam is what the subject will attain.→ ‘If slain, you will attain heaven.’
gita [1]hato vā prāpsyasi svargam, hataḥ san svargaṃ prāpsyasi |
‘Slain, you will attain heaven’: being slain, you will attain heaven.
Jitvā is an anterior absolutive sharing the subject of bhokṣyase. Its contextually omitted object is Karṇa and the other heroes; bhokṣyase is active in meaning and takes mahīm as its object.→ ‘Having conquered [Karṇa and the other heroes], you will enjoy the earth.’
gita [2]jitvā vā karṇādīn śūrān bhokṣyase mahīm |
Or, having conquered the heroes beginning with Karṇa, you will enjoy the earth.
The two vā particles coordinate the alternatives of being slain and conquering, and Śaṅkara emphasizes that either outcome is a gain for Arjuna.→ A paired ‘either ... or’ alternative, with gain in either case.
gita [3]ubhayathāpi tava lābha evety abhiprāyaḥ |
The intention is that in either way there is gain alone for you.
Tasmāt draws the practical conclusion from the preceding two advantageous outcomes; uttiṣṭha is an imperative, and yuddhāya is its purpose dative: ‘therefore arise for battle.’→ ‘Therefore arise ... for battle.’
gita [4]yata evaṃ tasmāt uttiṣṭha kaunteya yuddhāya kṛtāni ca yaḥ jeṣyāmi śatrūn, mariṣyāmi vā iti niścayaṃ kṛtvety arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.37||
Since this is so, therefore arise, son of Kuntī, for battle. The later part explains making the determination, ‘I shall conquer the enemies, or I shall die.’ The plaintext sequence kṛtāni ca yaḥ is evidently corrupt or missegmented and is not adopted as such.
Kṛta-niścayaḥ is a bahuvrīhi qualifying the implicit subject of uttiṣṭha, not two independent words. It means ‘one who has made his resolve,’ which Śaṅkara paraphrases as ‘having formed the determination’ that he will conquer the enemies or die.→ Bahuvrīhi kṛto niścayo yena saḥ, rendered ‘your resolve made.’
gita [4]yata evaṃ tasmāt uttiṣṭha kaunteya yuddhāya kṛtāni ca yaḥ jeṣyāmi śatrūn, mariṣyāmi vā iti niścayaṃ kṛtvety arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.37||
The intended gloss is: having made the determination, ‘I shall conquer the enemies, or I shall die.’ The plaintext kṛtāni ca yaḥ appears to be a typographical or segmentation corruption near kṛta-niścayaḥ; the explanatory phrase niścayaṃ kṛtvā makes the construction clear.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1hato vā prāpsyasi svargam, hataḥ san svargaṃ prāpsyasi |
2jitvā vā karṇādīn śūrān bhokṣyase mahīm |
3ubhayathāpi tava lābha evety abhiprāyaḥ |
4yata evaṃ tasmāt uttiṣṭha kaunteya yuddhāya kṛtāni ca yaḥ jeṣyāmi śatrūn, mariṣyāmi vā iti niścayaṃ kṛtvety arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.37||
5tatra yuddhaṃ svadharma ity evaṃ yudhyamānasyopadeśam imaṃ sṛṇu -