Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 1, Verse 42
सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च।
पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः।।
पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः।।
saṅkaro narakāyaiva kula-ghnānāṁ kulasya ca
patanti pitaro hy eṣāṁ lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ
also searched as "sankaro narakayaiva kulaghnanam kulasya cha"
Translation
This mixing of classes leads to hell for the clan itself and its destroyers; for the spirits of their ancestors fall degraded, deprived of the ritual offerings of food and water.
Vāṇi's rendering
That blurring drags the family and its destroyers to hell; the ancestors fall, robbed of their rice and water.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| सङ्करःsaṅkaraḥ | the mixing, the blurring of the lines between families and their duties |
| नरकायnarakāya | into hell, to a place of falling |
| एवeva | indeed, only — joined to the previous word by sandhi (narakāya + eva) |
| कुलघ्नानाम्kula-ghnānāṁ | of those who destroy the family |
| कुलस्यkulasya | of the family itself |
| चca | and |
| पतन्तिpatanti | they fall, they sink |
| पितरःpitaro | the fathers, the ancestors |
| हिhy | for, surely — shortened before the vowel that follows |
| एषाम्eṣāṁ | of these ones, theirs |
| लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाःlupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ | robbed of the offerings of rice and water made for the dead |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 Verse 42 mean?
Arjuna says the blurring of family order sends both the family and its destroyers downward, and leaves the ancestors without the rice and water offered to them. It is the last link in a chain of consequences he has been building since he saw his kinsmen. The fear is sincere. The reasoning is still Arjuna's, not Krishna's.
What does sankaro narakayaiva kulaghnanam kulasya cha mean?
That blurring drags the family and its destroyers to hell; the ancestors fall, robbed of their rice and water. Saṅkara here is the collapse of the order that told each person what was theirs to do. Arjuna sees the collapse reaching backward, past the living, into the dead.
Is the Gita teaching that caste mixing causes hell?
These are Arjuna's words in despair, not Krishna's answer. Krishna has not begun to speak. When he does, he will not defend this argument — he will dismantle the grief beneath it. Read the first chapter as a man's mind under collapse, faithfully recorded, not as instruction.
Why does Arjuna worry about the ancestors here?
Because in his world the dead are fed by the living. Break the family and the offerings stop; stop the offerings and the ancestors fall. It is a real dread, and it is also the furthest place his fear can reach. When you cannot bear the next step, the mind runs to distant consequences instead.
Themes in this verse
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Arjuna is still talking. Krishna has not said a word since the chariot stopped, and Arjuna has moved from grief to genealogy — from I cannot kill my teachers to the ancestors will starve. Watch how the chain lengthens. Each link is plausible; the whole rope is fear. He is not wrong that a family's dead depend on the living. He is wrong that this is what he is weighing. The mind under dread becomes a brilliant lawyer, arguing forward into hells that have not happened. You have made this argument. Notice the moment your reasons stop clarifying and start protecting you.