Sanskrit
सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च । पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रियाः ॥
saṅkaro narakāyaiva kulaghnānāṃ kulasya ca patanti pitaro hy eṣāṃ luptapiṇḍodakakriyāḥ
Translation
This confusion draggeth to hell the slayers of the family, and the family; for their ancestors fall, deprived of rice-balls and libations.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The argument’s next consequence is ritual rather than social: the offerings of rice-balls and water (piṇḍa and udaka) owed to ancestors in the śrāddha rites depend on family continuity, so a family’s destruction is described as starving its own dead. It’s a claim rooted entirely in a specific ritual worldview, extending verse 41’s social-consequences chain one step further.
Study deeper
Word by word
- saṅkaroसङ्करो
- this confusion
- narakāyaivaनरकायैव
- leads to hell alone
- kula-ghnānāṃकुल-घ्नानां
- for the destroyers of the family
- kulasya caकुलस्य च
- and for the family itself
- patantiपतन्ति
- fall
- pitaro hy eṣāṃपितरो ह्य् एषां
- for their ancestors
- lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥलुप्त-पिण्डोदक-क्रियाः
- deprived of the offerings of rice-ball and water
Commentary
Site Commentary
Track the scope across this stretch of verses, not just the intensity: family customs (40), social order (41), and now — with this verse — the fate of ancestors already dead, who depend on rites the living owe them. Each step doesn’t just argue harder, it widens who’s harmed, reaching backward to people who can’t defend themselves in the argument at all.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're weighing a hard decision, check whether you've considered its full reach — not just the people directly in front of you, but those further out whose stake in it is easy to overlook. Widening your view of who's affected often changes the weight of the decision.
Professional
- Before finalizing a decision, map its impact in widening circles — the immediate team, then downstream teams, then dependencies nobody in the room represents. The full cost is often invisible until you deliberately widen the scope.
Family & Social
- When a family decision seems settled, check whether you've considered everyone it touches at the outer edges — an aging relative, a person not in the room — rather than just the people it affects most visibly and immediately.
Ask yourself
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