Contents
Shri Sankara's Gita Bhashya
(Sri Sankaracharya's Commentary on the Gita)
CHAPTER -2
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Sañjaya uvāca—
9. After speaking thus to Hrsīkeśa4, Gudākeśa (Arjuna), the conqueror of enemies, said to Govinda, "I will not fight"and became speecliless. 10. O Bhārata![1] To him who was depressed in spirits in the midst of the two armies, Hrsīkeśa, smiling as it were, addressed these words."'[2] Here, the text beginning from, "And then, seeing the forces of the Pāndavas"(1-2) and ending with, "(Arjuna) said to Govinda, 'I will not fight' and became speechless "(II-9) should be explained as having the purpose of diagnosing the cause which produces the evils of sorrow, delusion, etc., constituting the seeds of samsāra, for sentient beings. As for instance, in the passage beginning from, "How shall I fight against Bhīsma and Drona in battle"(II-4), Arjuna exhibited (the marks of) his sorrow and delusion, caused by the feelings of affection and separation born of the false notion, "I belong to them; and they belong to me"—in respect of empire, elders, sons, friends, well-wishers, kinsmen, relations by marriage and relations on the maternal side. Although lie had of himself entered on the war as the duty of a warrior of the Ksatriya-cast, it was surely when his discrimi native faculty was overpowered by sorrow and delusion that he abstained from fighting and wished to adopt a life of mendicancy and the like, prescribed as the duty of those of a different cast. |
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