Gita 02.11 – The ability to harmonize the walk with the talk characterizes the wise
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ(BG 2.11)
Word–for-word:
śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; aśocyān — not worthy of lamentation; anvaśocaḥ — you are lamenting; tvam — you; prajñā-vādān — learned talks; ca — also; bhāṣase — speaking; gata — lost; asūn — life; agata — not passed; asūn — life; ca — also; na — never; anuśocanti — lament; paṇḍitāḥ — the learned.
Translation:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.
Explanation:
The words “śrī-bhagavān uvāca” appear here for the second time. The first occurrence was in 2.2 and 2.3, but that was before the super-significant moment when Arjuna surrendered—kārpaṇya-doṣopahata (Bg 2.7). Although śrī-bhagavān was speaking even then, He was addressing Arjuna more as a friend. Here, however, he speaks as a guru.
Furthermore, He was prahasann iva (Bg 2.10)—smiling at the shift in His disciple’s mood. But now, assuming the appropriate gravity, Bhagavān begins speaking, calling a spade a spade.
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ —The words śocati, viṣīdantam, and śokam (lamentation, grief) appear repeatedly in the description of Arjuna. Here, Kṛṣṇa says, aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ—”You are grieving for that which is not worthy of grief.”
prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase —”You are speaking (ca bhāṣase) the words of the wise (prajñā-vādāṁś) while grieving for that which is not worthy of grief.”
It is interesting that Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna, in effect, that he is not wise but is merely speaking the words of the wise. Simply uttering wise-sounding words does not make one wise—true wisdom lies in living according to those words.
For instance, a stage actor can memorize the words of great thinkers and mimic them, but that does not make the actor a great thinker. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that his words are lofty, but his actions belie them. His words reflect great wisdom, but his actions reveal a lack of it.
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ—What is worthy of lamentation and what is not varies according to a person’s wisdom and maturity.
For example, when children build sandcastles on the shore, the rising tide eventually washes them away. The child may cry, but the parents do not. While they empathize with the child’s distress and wish to spare them from it, they also understand that some lessons cannot be learned merely by hearing—they must be experienced. This is one such lesson.
What we grieve over reveals the level of our consciousness. Children lament over things that their parents do not. Similarly, as we grow spiritually, we cease to grieve over temporary matters.
Hence, Kṛṣṇa says, aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ—”You are lamenting for that which is not worthy of lamentation, O Arjuna.” This is actually a form of disapproval or chastisement. It is as if Kṛṣṇa is bluntly telling Arjuna to his face: “You have double standards, you are being a hypocrite, you are not walking your talk.”
Essentially, Kṛṣṇa is pointing out that Arjuna is not living by the wisdom he claims to uphold. Arjuna quotes scripture and refers to what he has ‘heard’ (iti anuśuśruma, Bg 1.43), speaking at length about the long-term social consequences of the war. His words sound like those of a wise person, but his demeanor does not reflect true wisdom.
The point is that we all need to ‘walk our talk’ if our words are to be trustworthy. Eloquence, insight, and rhetoric can have an impact, but serious seekers are not merely interested in hearing words that sound good—they want to see those teachings demonstrated in the lives of those who preach them.
We may temporarily entice or mesmerize others with our expertise in wordplay, but true transformation requires more than eloquence—people need to see living examples of the teachings being spoken.
Moreover, even for ourselves, merely speaking high-sounding words is of little benefit. We must live by those words, and doing so demands effort and determination to harmonize our actions with our speech.
The ability to subordinate emotion to reason is one of the hallmarks of maturity, but that does not mean suppressing human emotion. Rather, we need to realize that emotions can be misleading, distracting, and sometimes even degrading. Therefore, we need to use our intelligence to check, observe, and evaluate our emotions, stopping them when necessary. This is the true sign of learning. For unworthy causes, one does not need to get overly excited about things.
For example, if someone talks or writes about the great problem of poverty in society, describing the suffering of the poor and what the government should do, speaking in very eloquent terms, but then, upon hearing that India lost a cricket match, they break down, become hysterical, and are on the verge of smashing the television, a question arises: If you are so concerned about the poor—people who are battling just to get a meal, struggling to survive—then surely that is a far graver problem than India losing a match, no matter how important the match may be.
Of course, those who are passionate about cricket may not feel this way, but their feelings are subjective. When someone waxes eloquent about an issue that is far more serious—one that deals with life and death, which is objectively far graver than the result of a match—then to get worked up about the outcome of a cricket game seems unbecoming.
Similarly, Arjuna speaks of grave consequences based on scripture, but he is missing a fundamental teaching of scripture. This is why his words and actions do not align. Kṛṣṇa will guide Arjuna to walk his talk—not by bringing his behavior down to the level of his unexamined emotions, but by raising his emotions to their purest form and elevating his behavior to that level. In doing so, there will be congruence between emotion and action at the transcendental level, in pure devotion. This is how Arjuna will ultimately act wisely by the end of the Bhagavad-gītā.
Thank you.
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