Shloka

सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च |
पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः ||१-४२||

Transliteration

saṅkaro narakāyaiva kulaghnānāṃ kulasya ca .
patanti pitaro hyeṣāṃ luptapiṇḍodakakriyāḥ ||1-42||

Translations

Dr.S.Sankaranarayan

1.42. The intermixture leads the family-ruiners and the family to nothing but the hell; for, their ancestors (their individual souls) fall down [in hell], being deprived of the rites of offering rice-balls and water [intended to them].

Shri Purohit Swami

1.42 Promiscuity ruins both the family and those who defile it; while the souls of our ancestors droop, through lack of the funeral cakes and ablutions.

Sri Abhinav Gupta

1.35 1.44 Nihatya etc. upto anususruma. Sin alone is the agent in the act of slaying these desperadoes. Therefore here the idea is this : These ememies of ours have been slain, i.e., have been take possession of, by sin. Sin would come to us also after slaying them. Sin in this context is the disregard, on account of greed etc., to the injurious conseences like the ruination of the family and the like. That is why Arjuna makes a specific mention of the [ruin of the] family etc., and of its duties in the passage ‘How by slaying my own kinsmen etc’.

The act of slaying, undertaken with an individualizing idea about its result, and with a particularizing idea about the person to be slain, is a great sin. To say this very thing precisely and to indicate the intensity of his own agony, Arjuna says only to himself [see next sloka]:

Sri Ramanuja

1.26 - 1.47 Arjuna said - Sanjaya said Sanjaya continued: The high-minded Arjuna, extremely kind, deeply friendly, and supremely righteous, having brothers like himself, though repeatedly deceived by the treacherous attempts of your people like burning in the lac-house etc., and therefore fit to be killed by him with the help of the Supreme Person, nevertheless said, ‘I will not fight.’

He felt weak, overcome as he was by his love and extreme compassion for his relatives. He was also filled with fear, not knowing what was righteous and what unrighteous. His mind was tortured by grief, because of the thought of future separation from his relations. So he threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot as if to fast to death.

Sri Shankaracharya

1.42 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.

Swami Adidevananda

1.42 This mixing of classes leads to hell the clan itself and its destroyers; for the spirits of their ancestors fall degraded, deprived of the ritual offerings of food and water.

Swami Gambirananda

1.42 And the intermingling in the family leads the ruiners of the family verily into hell. The forefathers of these fall down (into hell) because of being deprived of the offerings of rice-balls and water.

Swami Sivananda

1.42. Confusion of castes leads to hell the slayers of the family, for their forefathers fall, deprived of the offerings of rice-ball and water (libations).

Commentaries

Swami Sivananda

1.42 सङ्करः confusion of castes? नरकाय for the hell? एव also? कुलघ्नानाम् of the slayers of the family?कुलस्य of the family? च and? पतन्ति fall? पितरः the forefathers? हि verily? एषां their? लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः deprived of the offerings of ricall and water.No Commentary.