📿 Shloka Collection

Sankaro Narakayaiva

Gita 1.42 Bhagavad Gita
📖 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 1 — Arjuna Vishada Yoga
सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च ।
पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः ॥
Sankaro narakayaiva kulaghnanam kulasya cha,
Patanti pitaro hy esham lupta-pindodaka-kriyah.
सङ्करः
social intermixture / disorder
नरकाय
to hell
एव
indeed
कुलघ्नानाम्
of those who destroy the family
कुलस्य
of the family
पतन्ति
fall
पितरः
ancestors / forefathers
एषाम्
their
लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः
whose pinda (rice-ball offering) and water rites have ceased

Arjuna's chain of worry now reaches across the boundary between the living and the dead. He says: This disorder brings hell for those who destroy the family and for the family itself. Their ancestors fall from their place, because the rites of pinda and water — the offerings that sustain them — are no longer performed.

In Indian tradition, offering pinda (rice balls) and water to one's ancestors is a sacred duty. It is the way the living honour and sustain those who came before them. When a family is destroyed and there is no one left to perform these rites, the connection between the generations is severed — not just in this world, but in the next.

Arjuna's concern is deeply practical in the framework of his tradition. When a family falls apart, the memories, rites, and traditions that kept the ancestors alive in spirit are lost. The past is forgotten, and what was sacred becomes neglected.

Arjuna's chain adds another link: social disorder leads to the fall of the ancestors. The compound word 'lupta-pindodaka-kriyah' is long but precise — it describes those whose pinda and water offerings have stopped. It shows that Arjuna's concern extends not just to the living, but to all the generations that came before.

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