Geethartha Chinthane-100: Grief after death, not during dying!

“Gatasoon agatasoonscha nanushochanti panditah” (2-11) – Krishna declares that wise individuals do not grieve for either the dead or the living. If one mourns for the dead, they should also grieve for the living. However, true wisdom lies in accepting both without sorrow.

Do people grieve while someone is in the process of dying? No, grief arises only after death has occurred. Hence Krishna uses the terms gata (past) and agata (present). Instead of simply saying dead, Krishna refers to the absence of life as gata to highlight that grief is tied to the concept of separation after death.

Death, in essence, is the absence of the mukhya prana (vital life force). Losing sensory faculties like sight or hearing does not equate to death. True death occurs only when all five vital life forces (prana, apana, vyana, udana, and samana) depart from the body.

Even when these life forces are gone, the wise do not grieve. Krishna could have said, “one mourns the dead and the living,” but he emphasizes that sorrow typically arises from a sense of isolation. A wise person understands that death is universal—everyone dies, including oneself. This realization eliminates unnecessary grief, which is why Krishna uses the plural form (panditah) to generalize this wisdom.

State