Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 11

श्रीभगवानुवाच । अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे । गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः

śrībhagavānuvāca | aśocyānanvaśocastvaṃ prajñāvādāṃśca bhāṣase | gatāsūnagatāsūṃśca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

Translation

For those who deserve no grief thou hast grieved, and words of wisdom thou speakest. For the living and for the dead the wise grieve not.

— Alladi Mahadeva Sastri

Word meanings

aśocyān

unbewailable

anvaśocaḥ

hast bewailed

tvam

thou

prajñāvādān

of wisdom, words

ca

and

bhāṣase

speakest

gatāsūn

(those whose) life-breaths are gone

agatāsūn

(those whose) life-breaths are not gone

ca

and

na

not

anuśocanti

grieve

paṇḍitāḥ

the wise

Śaṅkarācārya's commentary

Such people as Bhīṣma and Droṇa deserve no grief: they are men of right conduct, and in their real nature as the Self they are eternal. You have grieved for them, saying, "I am the cause of their death; of what avail are pleasures of dominion to me left alone without them?" Yet you also speak the words of wise men. Thus you exhibit a strange inconsistency in yourself — foolishness and wisdom together, like a maniac. The wise (paṇḍitāḥ) — those who know the Self — grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. They alone are wise who know the Self, for the śruti says, "Having obtained wisdom (pāṇḍitya, i.e., knowledge of the Self) in its entirety…" (Bṛ. Up. III.5.1). You grieve for those who are really eternal and who deserve no grief; wherefore you are foolish. — Why do they deserve no grief? Because they are eternal. — How so? The next verse shows.