Grieving

शोकाकुल

The Bhagavad Gita speaks to every state of the heart. Sit with these verses — read slowly, and let them meet you where you are.

To a grieving heart Krishna speaks the oldest comfort: what you truly loved in them was never the kind of thing that can die.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि न्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः। अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे।।2.20।।

na jāyate mriyate vā kadāchin nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ ajo nityaḥ śhāśhvato ’yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śharīre

This is never born, nor does It die. It is not that not having been It again comes into being. (Or according to another view: It is not that having been It again ceases to be). This is unborn, eternal, changeless, ever-Itself. It is not killed when the body is killed.

— Swami Swarupananda

Bhagavad Gita 2.20

Like clothes set aside at day's end, the body is laid down while the one who wore it continues — a gentle image to hold when loss feels final.

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि। तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही।।2.22।।

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya navāni gṛihṇāti naro ’parāṇi tathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānya nyāni sanyāti navāni dehī

Even as a man casts off worn-out clothes, and puts on others which are new, so the embodied casts off worn-out bodies, and enters into others which are new.

— Swami Swarupananda

Bhagavad Gita 2.22

The same self that moved through childhood and youth moves onward at death; the journey doesn't end, it only turns a corner we cannot see past.

देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा। तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति।।2.13।।

dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati

As are childhood, youth, and old age, in this body, to the embodied soul, so also is the attaining of another body. Calm souls are not deluded thereat.

— Swami Swarupananda

Bhagavad Gita 2.13

Grief is love meeting the certainty of change; this verse doesn't scold the tears, it simply reminds you that arriving and departing belong to one circle.

जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च। तस्मादपरिहार्येऽर्थे न त्वं शोचितुमर्हसि।।2.27।।

jātasya hi dhruvo mṛityur dhruvaṁ janma mṛitasya cha tasmād aparihārye ’rthe na tvaṁ śhochitum arhasi

Of that which is born, death is certain, of that which is dead, birth is certain. Over the unavoidable, therefore, thou oughtest not to grieve.

— Swami Swarupananda

Bhagavad Gita 2.27