back to questions
Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.63
krodhād bhavati saṃmohaḥ saṃmohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ | smṛti-bhraṃśād buddhi-nāśo buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati
Translation. From anger comes delusion (saṃmoha)—failure to distinguish what should and should not be done;
from delusion, a lapse of memory (smṛti-vibhrama).
From memory’s loss (smṛti-bhraṃśa) comes loss of the intellect’s discriminative capacity (buddhi-nāśa);
from that loss, one is ruined—unfit for the human ends (puruṣārthas).
Grammar check: 9 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 |
|---|
| krodhāt | krodha | pass |
| bhavati | bhū | pass |
| saṃmohaḥ | sammoha | pass |
| saṃmohāt | sammoha | pass |
| smṛti-vibhramaḥ | smṛti-vibhrama | pass |
| smṛti-bhraṃśāt | smṛti-bhraṃśa | pass |
| buddhi-nāśaḥ | buddhi-nāśa | pass |
| buddhi-nāśāt | buddhi-nāśa | pass |
| praṇaśyati | naś | 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.
The successive ablatives are construed causally, forming a chain in which each condition produces the next, rather than as merely spatial or separative ablatives.→ causal ablatives forming the sequence anger → delusion → memory-lapse → loss of discernment → ruin
gita [4]krodhād bhavati saṃmoho 'vivekaḥ kāryākārya-viṣayaḥ |
From anger comes delusion, a failure to discriminate concerning what should and should not be done.
gita [7, 9]tataḥ smṛti-bhraṃśāt buddhi-nāśaḥ buddhi-nāśaḥ |
buddher nāśāt praṇaśyati |
Then, from the loss of memory comes the loss of discernment. From the loss of discernment he is ruined.
Saṃmoha is translated as ‘delusion,’ specifically the failure to distinguish what should and should not be done, rather than as generic emotional confusion or unconsciousness.→ delusion understood as practical non-discrimination
gita [4]krodhād bhavati saṃmoho 'vivekaḥ kāryākārya-viṣayaḥ |
From anger comes delusion: non-discrimination regarding what should and should not be done.
gita [5]kruddho hi saṃmūḍhaḥ san gurum apy ākrośati |
For an angry person, being deluded, even abuses his teacher.
Smṛti-vibhrama is taken as a genitive tatpuruṣa, ‘lapse of memory.’ Its sense is not merely mental agitation but the failure, when an appropriate occasion arises, of recollection generated by impressions implanted through scripture and a teacher’s instruction.→ a lapse of memory, specifically non-arising of instruction-based recollection when its occasion is present
gita [6]saṃmohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ śāstrācāryopadeśāhita-saṃskāra-janitāyāḥ smṛte syāt vibhramo bhraṃśaḥ smṛty-utpatti-nimitta-prāptau anutpattiḥ |
From delusion comes a lapse of memory: the lapse or loss of memory generated by impressions deposited through scripture and a teacher’s instruction—its failure to arise when the condition for memory’s arising has been reached. The transmitted phrase smṛte syāt is textually suspect, but the subsequent definition vibhramo bhraṃśaḥ … anutpattiḥ is unambiguous.
Smṛti-bhraṃśa is likewise a genitive tatpuruṣa, ‘loss of memory,’ and resumes the preceding smṛti-vibhrama; Śaṅkara explicitly equates vibhrama with bhraṃśa.→ loss of memory, synonymous here with smṛti-vibhrama
gita [6]vibhramo bhraṃśaḥ
Lapse means loss.
gita [7]tataḥ smṛti-bhraṃśāt buddhi-nāśaḥ buddhi-nāśaḥ |
Then, from the loss of memory comes the loss of discernment.
Buddhi-nāśa is parsed as ‘loss of buddhi’ and translated functionally as loss of the intellect’s discriminative capacity, not as the literal annihilation of the inner organ.→ loss of the intellect’s capacity for practical discrimination
gita [8]kāryākārya-viṣaya-vivekāyogyatā antaḥ-karaṇasya buddher nāśa ucyate |
The inner organ’s—intellect’s—incapacity for discrimination concerning what should and should not be done is called the loss of buddhi.
gita [10]tāvad eva hi puruṣaḥ yāvad antaḥkaraṇaṃ tadīyaṃ kāryākārya-viṣaya-viveka-yogyam |
A person remains such only so long as his inner organ is capable of discriminating what should and should not be done.
Praṇaśyati has the person as its implicit subject and means that he is ruined in the specific sense of becoming unfit to pursue the human ends, not necessarily that he physically dies.→ he is ruined—becomes unfit for the human ends
gita [11]tad-ayogyatve naṣṭa eva puruṣo bhavati |
When it becomes incapable of that, the person is indeed as good as lost.
gita [12]ataḥ tasyāntaḥ-karaṇasya buddher nāśāt praṇaśyati puruṣārthāyogyo bhavatīty arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.62-63||
Therefore, from the loss of his inner organ—his buddhi—he is ruined; the meaning is that he becomes unfit for the human ends.
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1dhyāyataś cintayato viṣayāt śabdādīn viṣaya-viśeṣān ālocayataḥ puṃsaḥ puruṣasya saṅgaḥ āsaktiḥ prītis teṣu viṣayeṣu upajāyate utpadyate |
2saṅgāt prīteḥ saṃjāyate samutpadyate kāmas tṛṣṇā |
3kāmāt kutaścit pratihatāt krodho 'bhijāyate |
4krodhād bhavati saṃmoho 'vivekaḥ kāryākārya-viṣayaḥ |
5kruddho hi saṃmūḍhaḥ san gurum apy ākrośati |
6saṃmohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ śāstrācāryopadeśāhita-saṃskāra-janitāyāḥ smṛte syāt vibhramo bhraṃśaḥ smṛty-utpatti-nimitta-prāptau anutpattiḥ |
7tataḥ smṛti-bhraṃśāt buddhi-nāśaḥ buddhi-nāśaḥ |
8kāryākārya-viṣaya-vivekāyogyatā antaḥ-karaṇasya buddher nāśa ucyate |
9buddher nāśāt praṇaśyati |
10tāvad eva hi puruṣaḥ yāvad antaḥkaraṇaṃ tadīyaṃ kāryākārya-viṣaya-viveka-yogyam |
11tad-ayogyatve naṣṭa eva puruṣo bhavati |
12ataḥ tasyāntaḥ-karaṇasya buddher nāśāt praṇaśyati puruṣārthāyogyo bhavatīty arthaḥ ||bhgs_2.62-63||
13sarvānarthasya mūlamuktaṃ viṣayābhidhyānam |
14atha idānīṃ mokṣakāraṇamidamucyate --