Sanskrit
अशोच्यानन्वशोचस्त्वं प्रज्ञावादांश्च भाषसे । गतासूनगतासूंश्च नानुशोचन्ति पण्डिताः ॥
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṃ prajñāvādāṃś ca bhāṣase gatāsūn agatāsūṃś ca nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
Translation
Thou grievest for those that should not be grieved for, yet speakest words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna opens not with comfort but with a correction. Arjuna has been speaking “the language of the wise” — invoking duty, kinship, consequence — while still grieving as though the people in front of him could actually cease to exist. The rebuke is precise: real wisdom and grief over the imperishable cannot coexist. Everything that follows in the chapter — the teaching on the self’s immortality, on duty, on equanimous action, and on the steady sage — is Krishna making good on this one claim.