Sanskrit
कुलक्षये प्रणश्यन्ति कुलधर्माः सनातनाः । धर्मे नष्टे कुलं कृत्स्नमधर्मोऽभिभवत्युत ॥
kulakṣaye praṇaśyanti kuladharmāḥ sanātanāḥ dharme naṣṭe kulaṃ kṛtsnam adharmo'bhibhavaty uta
Translation
In the destruction of a family the immemorial family traditions perish; in the perishing of tradition, lawlessness overcomes the whole family;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna opens a social-consequences argument distinct from the personal and moral ones already made: beyond the deaths themselves, destroying a family destroys its inherited dharma — customs, rites, the structures that hold it together — and lawlessness fills the resulting vacuum. This argument, unlike the earlier ones, is never directly answered anywhere in the Gita; Krishna’s response in Chapter 2 addresses the metaphysics of self and the duty to fight, but doesn’t revisit this specific claim about family and social order.
Concepts