44. utsannakuladharmanam
manusyanam janardana
narake niyatam vaso
bhavati 'ty anususruma
(44) And we have heard it said, 0 Janardana (Krsna), that the men of the families whose laws are destroyed needs must live in hell.
45. aho bata mahat papam
kartum vyavasita vayam
yad rajyasukhalobhena
hantum svajanam udyatah
(45) Alas, what a great sin have we resolved to commit in striving to slay our own people through our greed for the pleasures of the kingdom !
46. yadi mam apratikaram
asastram sastrapanayah
dhartarastra rave hanyus
tan me ksemataram bhavet
(46) Far better would it be for me if the sons of Dhrtarastra, with weapons in hand, should slay me in the battle, while I remain unresisting and unarmed.Another reading is priyataram for ksemataram. Arjuna's words are uttered in. agony and love. He has his mind on the frontiers of two worlds. He is struggling to get some-thing done as man has struggled from the beginning, and yet he is incapable of decision because of his inability to understand either himself or his fellows or the real nature of the universe in which he is placed. He is stressing the physical pain and the material discomfort which warfare involves. The main end of life is not the pursuit of material happiness. We are bound to miss it as we approach the end of life, with its incidents of old age, infirmity, death. For the sake of an ideal, for justice and love, we must stand up to tyranny and face pain and death. On the very edge of the battle, Arjuna loses heart and all worldly considerations persuade him to abstain from the battle. He has yet to realize that wives and children, teachers and kinsmen, are dear not for their own sake but for the sake of the Self. Arjuna has still to listen to the voice of the teacher who declares that he should lead a life in which his acts will not have their root in desire, that there is such a thing as niskama karma—desire less action.
47. evam uktva 'rjunah samkhye
rathopastha upavisat
visrjya sasaram capam
sokasamvignamanasah
(47) Having spoken thus on the (field of) battle, Arjuna sank down on the seat of his chariot, casting away his bow and arrow, his spirit overwhelmed by sorrow The distress of Arjuna is a dramatization of a perpetually recurring predicament. Man, on the threshold of higher life, feels disappointed with the glamour of the world and yet illusions cling to him and he cherishes them. He forgets his divine ancestry and becomes attached to his personality and is agitated by the conflicting forces of the world. Before he wakes up to the world of spirit and accepts the obligations imposed by it, he has to fight the enemies of selfishness and stupidity, and overcome the dark ignorance of his self-centered ego. Man cut off from spiritual nature has to be restored to it. It is the evolution of the human soul that is portrayed here. There are no limits of time and space to it. The fight takes place every moment in the soul of man.
