Verse 16.5

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 16.5:

दैवी सम्पद् विमोक्षाय निबन्धायासुरी मता ।
मा शुचः सम्पदं दैवीम् अभिजातोऽसि पाण्डव ॥ ५ ॥

daivī sampad vimokṣāya nibandhāyāsurī matā |
mā śucaḥ sampadaṃ daivīm abhijāto'si pāṇḍava || 5 ||

daivī–divine; sampat–qualities; vimokṣāya–lead to liberation; nibandhāya–to bondage; āsurī–the demonaic; matā–considered; mā śucaḥ–do not lament; sampadam–qualities; daivīm–a divine; abhijātaḥ–born; asi–you are; pāṇḍava–O son of Pāṇḍu.

Divine qualities are the cause of liberation, and demoniac qualities are the cause of bondage. O son of Pāṇḍu, do not lament, for you are born with divine qualities.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

Now, in this verse beginning with daivī, Śrī Bhagavān is showing how these two natures function. Arjuna may lament, “Alas, alas! I must possess demoniac qualities like hard-heartedness and anger, for I desire to kill my relatives with arrows.” In response, Śrī Bhagavān says “mā śucaḥ–do not lament” and so forth, to give him solace. “You are born in a dynasty of kṣatriyas. Scriptures that deal with morality (dharma-śāstra) allow a kṣatriya to be hard-hearted and angry while at war, but to be violent, etc., in other circumstances is demoniac.”

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Prakāśikā-vṛtti

(By Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja; the explanation that illuminates the commentary named Sārārtha-varṣiṇī)

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura quotes Kṛṣṇa as saying, “It is only by divine qualities that one can endeavour for liberation, and it is only by demoniac qualities that one becomes bound to this world. O Arjuna, by cultivating jñāna-yoga while following varṇāśrama-dharma, one achieves the purification of one’s existence. You are blessed with divine qualities, being born in a noble kṣatriya family. It is not demoniac to kill one’s relatives in a religious war, to shoot them with arrows, or to perform other such activities in accordance with the injunctions of scripture. Now, having heard this instruction, you should give up your grief.”