Gita Class 006, Ch. 1 Verses 40-47

Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda

Feb 6, 2021

Youtube link: 06: Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda – Ch.1 Verses 40-47

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Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/

Note about the verses:  Swamiji typically starts a few verses before and discusses 10 verses at the beginning of the class. The screenshot of the verses takes that into consideration and also all the verses that were presented during the class, which may be after the verses discussed initially. We put the later of the two at the beginning

Note about the transcription:The transcription has been generated using AI and highlighted by volunteers. Swamiji has reviewed the quality of this content and has approved it and this is perfectly legal. The purpose is to have a closer reading of Swamiji.s teachings. Please follow along with youtube videos. We are doing this as our sadhana and nothing more.

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Class 6

ॐ सह नाववतु  
oṁ saha nāv avatu

सह नौ भुनक्तु  
saha nau bhunaktu

सह वीर्यं करवावहै  
saha vīryaṁ karavāvahai

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै  
tejasvināvadhītam astu mā vidviṣāvahai

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः  
oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

Good, welcome to the webcast of our Saturday Bhagavad Gita class. We continue today towards the end of chapter one. I think we’ll finish chapter one. We begin each class with some recitation. Be sure to glance at the meaning while I’m chanting and then repeat after me.

We’ll begin on verse 36.

Om, let’s see last verse of chapter one. Let us back up to where we left off. Yes, verse 40.

Just to remind you of where we are in chapter one: Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to drive the chariot out onto the battlefield. He looked on both sides and he saw countless family members and dear ones who were about to perish in the 18 days of battle that were just beginning.

And Arjuna had an emotional breakdown — panic attack, as we say nowadays. And he was overcome by his emotions to an extent that we can say that before any weapon was wielded on the battlefield, Arjuna was already knocked out of commission, as they say, by his own emotions.

And the strength of his emotional reaction — just to pick up the thread properly — the strength of his emotional reaction was due to this inner conflict, the inner battlefield.

The inner battlefield is a battle between intellect and emotions. Intellectually, Arjuna knew that if he failed to fight the battle, the consequences would be far worse. It was a dharma yudha, as we’ve discussed before — a righteous war. On the other hand, emotionally, Arjuna was repulsed by the idea of fighting against his own beloved family members.

This was the conflict, a conflict between intellect and emotions, between head and heart. We talked about this quite a bit in the last class. I don’t want to repeat it, except there was a question that came that I do want to address.

This discussion — obviously Arjuna, in this situation, must use his intellect to make the correct choice to follow dharma. If he were, on the other hand, to follow his heart — as a common saying goes — by following his heart, he would refuse to fight. The Pandavas would lose the battle, and a dharma would prevail with its far worse consequences.

So, Arjuna cannot afford to follow his heart. He must employ his intellect.

But that observation doesn’t put down our emotions in any way whatsoever. The point we want to understand here is this: our intellects and emotions are both two tremendously valuable faculties that make us human beings. We need them both, but they have very different purposes.

Our intellects are designed for decision-making — as I said in the last class — evaluating the situation, considering various options and choosing the best option.

Our emotions are not meant for that decision-making process. Our emotions are meant for feeling feelings. So therefore, our emotions are equally valuable, equally important, but our emotions are not designed for decision-making. That’s the only point.

The question specifically was: What about Bhakti? Doesn’t Bhakti involve the emotions?

Yes, of course. Bhakti involves emotions. And emotions are so important. This discussion is not to denigrate the importance of our emotions in any way whatsoever. It is, however, to — we have to be absolutely clear that decisions must be made using our intellects.

Of course, one last comment here is: of all the various factors our intellects have to consider, one of those many factors is our emotions. So when we make a decision, we have to consider the emotional consequences of our decision, but we cannot make decisions based on emotions alone.

If Arjuna were to do so — excuse me — if Arjuna were to do so, the consequences would be terrible. In the same way, if we make decisions based on emotions alone, we’ll make terrible decisions.

Okay, enough said.

Where we pick up the thread — Arjuna is — we also talked about rationalization in our prior class. We said when emotions hijack the intellect — I’m not sure if I used that terminology — rationalization is to make excuses for what we want to do.

I think the example I gave in the last class is when we say, “Just this once.” With those words we give ourselves permission to do something that we know is wrong. That’s a good example of rationalization.

Here, Arjuna is involved in an extensive rationalization that we’ll see in a latter part of this chapter, trying to justify why this war must not be fought. Intellectually, he knows it must be fought, but he’s looking for a loophole. What’s driving him to look for that loophole is the emotions.

The expression I’ve used before is that our intellects get hijacked by our emotions, leading us to be engaged in rationalization. I’ll say that again — our emotions hijack the intellect and distort our intellectual reasoning for the sake of justifying something which is emotionally pleasing but not on the path of Dharma.

So that’s what we’re going to see here with verse 40.

In the second line, the dharma — the traditions and rules of the Kula family. The traditions and rules — the Kula Dharma — the ancient laws of the family, which are Sanatanaah — ancient. The ancient laws of the family — first line pra na shanti — will be destroyed. Kula kshayee — if the family is destroyed.

So here’s Arjuna’s rationalization: Kula kshayee — if our family gets destroyed on the battlefield, then what? Kula dharmaah — the family traditions and rules, which are Sanatana — which have been going on generation after generation. For thousands of years, those laws pra na shanti — will be destroyed.

Notice — he used the word Dharma here. He knows it’s a Dharma Yudha. Now he is arguing the opposite. He’s trying to make a case for the fact that Dharma will be damaged if we fight this war.

This is the rationalization — a few comments to make, but let’s just finish his verse.

So if — first part — Kula kshayee — if our family members perish on the battlefield, then Kula dharmaah — the family laws and traditions will be destroyed.

Dharma na shanti — and when the family laws and traditions are destroyed, then in the last line, Adharmaah, Adharmaah Abhibavati — will overcome Kulam kretsnam. Kulam — family, kretsnam — the entire. Kulam kretsnam — the entire family. Abhibavati, Uta, Uta — indeed. Abhibavati — will be overcome Adharmaah — by Adharma.

If we look at the sequence — he’s trying to be very logical. Isn’t that what rationalization is about? To be very logical to support any emotional agenda.

So Arjuna argues — if our family members perish on the battlefield, then family dharma will perish. If family dharma perishes, then Adharma will overcome the family.

Arjuna is ignoring the fact that this battle is to preserve and protect dharma. The opposite is actually true — if Arjuna fails to fight the battle, Adharma will prevail and overcome the family.

So he’s turned around entirely. Dharma must be held first and forehold — first and foremost.

There’s a famous statement — comes elsewhere in the Mahabharata:

Dharma Rakshati Rakshita — Dharma, when it is Rakshita — when it is protected — that Dharma, Rakshati — protects us. Dharma protects us when Dharma is protected.

Conversely, when Dharma is not protected, then it fails to protect us.

Then:

In this verse and in the next three, four verses, Arjuna — it sounds like a lawyer, an attorney building up a logical case. But this whole logical case Arjuna is now going to build up — it’s all based on a false assumption.

The false assumption is that Dharma will be hurt by fighting the war. Dharma will not be protected by fighting the war. That’s a false assumption. But based on that false assumption, look at how Arjuna argues here.

He says: O Krishna, Adharmaah Abhibavati — due to Adharma, Abhibavati — overcoming. Due to — being due to prior verse — was the family of the context. So Abhibavati — due to the family being overcome Adharmaah — by Adharma. If the family is overcome by Adharma, what is the consequence?

Kula Striyaha — the women of the family — Pradushanti — will be defiled.

You can read several meanings into that, but women are affected by whatever is going on in a family. So if the family traditions are destroyed, family rules, family laws are destroyed, that will certainly affect the women of the family very negatively. And he uses a very strong word — Pradushanti — they will be defiled, will be corrupted by the Adharma in the family.

Striya Dush Dha Su — and when the women are defiled — you see how Arjuna is building up this argument step by step — when the women are defiled:

Varsneya — O Krishna. He comes from the Vrishni family. One who comes from the Vrishni clan is Varsneya. O Krishna, Striya Dush Dha Su — when the women of our family are defiled due to the prevalence of Adharma in the family, then what will be the consequence?

Varana Sankara — Sankara is intermixture. Varana — of the four castes: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra. Varana Sankara — mixture, intermixture of the four castes — Jayate — will take place.

We could get into a big discussion here about Varna, about caste — and we will later in the Bhagavad Gita in great detail. We’re going to discuss — this is not the right place, however.

Right now, perhaps we can just say that in Sri Krishna and Arjuna’s time, these four castes — Varna — the Varnashrama system, the system of stage of life (Ashrama) and Varna — these four social groups, was — let’s call it — the structure of society. That’s not to justify anything, but let us just observe that the society of that time was given structure and stability due to these Varnas.

Again — doesn’t justify it. By the way, when we do discuss this topic of castes (Varna) later, the point — I won’t take you through the whole argument — but the conclusion of the argument we’ll see at a later time is this: Hindu scripture nowhere condones discrimination based on caste.

No doubt, tremendous harmful discrimination took place. No one can deny that. But that horrible discrimination that took place was not scripturally ordained. It was the result of individual Hindus misunderstanding their own religion.

We’ll discuss this in great length, which is to make it very clear that the problem of caste discrimination is not scripturally based. It is people-based. We make the problems, obviously.

So here, when Arjuna is arguing — when the women are defiled, when they are thrown off from the path of Dharma, Then there will be the intermixture of the castes. The best way to understand this is the society’s structure will be weakened. The fabric of society, so to speak, will be weakened by that. And then, Arjuna continues to list all of the consequences, all of the negative consequences of fighting the war. But all of his arguments are based on a false assumption — the false assumption that fighting the war hurts Dharma rather than protecting Dharma.

So, based on his false assumptions, he can continue to consider the terrible consequences. Sankarah — the intermixture of the castes — which means the weakening of the social fabric, the societal strength, the society falls apart. And what is the result of that?

Narakaya, eva — eva, indeed — Narakaya — it leads to hell, literally. Narakaya — it’s the road to hell. For whom? Kulagnanam — for those who destroy the family; Kulesya — and for the family itself. It’s a lose-lose proposition. Those who destroy the family are destined to go to hell. And the family members who survive are destined to go to hell.

Why? Because the family Dharma has been destroyed.

And then further results — consequences not only for the surviving generation, but for past generations. Generally, we think of consequences for future generations. This is an odd situation where there’s a consequence for past generations.

How could that be?

Pitraha — the ancestors, literally “fathers,” but better meaning here — the ancestors; Aisham, he — you have to break those words apart: he — indeed; Aisham — for them; for whom? Kulagnanam — for those who destroy the family; Kulesya — and for the family itself. The family survivors, for all of them, their Pitraha, their ancestors — Patanti — will fall.

Will fall from the heavenly realms, or will fall from — there’s such a thing as Pitraloka, the realm of the ancestors. And why will they fall?

Lupta Pinda Udaka Kriyaha — because they are Lupta, deprived of Kriyaha — meaning rituals here. What kind of rituals? Rituals that involve the offering of Pinda — these balls of rice — and Udaka — water.

The reference here — some of you recognize — is a reference to Pitri Shraddha, this ritual done for our departed ancestors, several generations of departed ancestors. There are yearly rituals which are supposed to be conducted — yearly rituals which are intended to convey blessings to those departed souls.

And there’s an interesting way of doing that. In the ritual, some water and these balls of rice called Pindas are consecrated in rituals. And then these Pindas are left out after the rituals — they’re consumed by — it’s just fun to consider how people thought in those days — the Pindas, the rice balls, are consumed by crows. The crows fly off into the sky and symbolically — note that — symbolically the crows convey the blessings of that ritual to the departed ancestors in Pitraloka.

Arjuna’s argument here is: if the family traditions are destroyed, and the whole social structure breaks down, who’s going to be conducting these rituals for the ancestors?

No one will bother, according to Arjuna. And if no one bothers to conduct these rituals, the ancestors will be deprived of these blessings and they will fall down — leaving Pitraloka, the realm of the ancestors, and falling to a lower Loka. Arjuna’s argument.

Arjuna continues — excuse me.

Because of these dosha — defects — “sins” would be a good translation here. Due to these sins — Arjuna doshayanam — sins; whose sins? Kulagnanam — of those who destroy the family.

Due to the sins of those who destroy the family — what kind of sins?

Varna Sankara Karakaihi — sins which are karaka, sins which cause Varna Sankara — literally intermixture of the castes, but a more contextual meaning might be: tearing apart the social structure, the fabric of society being destroyed.

So, due to those terrible sins of those who destroy the family, what will be the further consequences?

The further consequences will be Jati Dharmaha — the Dharmas, the rules and laws of tradition of Jati — of the clan. “Of the caste” maybe would be a better translation here.

So the laws and traditions of the caste — utsadyante — will fall away, be destroyed. Not only Jati Dharma, but Kula Dharma cha — also the Dharma of the Kula. Kula is family. Jati would be the larger group, like a caste, and Kula would be the individual group of an individual family.

All of these — both , the laws of the castes, and Kula Dharma, the laws of the families — all of these are Shashvataha — they are eternal. They have been going on generation after generation. And all of this Dharma — utsadyante — will be destroyed.

Once again, Arjuna is arguing on a false premise. This war is being fought to protect Dharma. Arjuna is twisted around — he is arguing that this war will hurt Dharma.

No doubt — we had this discussion before — there are many, many wars which hurt Dharma. Adharmic wars — most wars are adharmic.

This situation in which Arjuna is — unique. It’s a situation where the war must be fought to protect Dharma. That’s the whole context of the Mahabharata. And to understand that context properly, you’d probably have to read the first half of the Mahabharata to really understand it clearly. But we’ve discussed it at some length already, and we’ll continue.

And here Arjuna concludes his litany of consequences — all these consequences that would result from fighting the war. All the consequences Arjuna has conjured up due to his arguing based on false premises.

So he says: Utsana Kula Dharmanam Manushyanam Janardana — Janardana, O Krishna — using that very strong name, the one who can kill people — asuras, primarily. The one who kills asuras — Janardana.

Manushyanam — for people. What kind of people?

First line — Utsana Kula Dharmanam — for people who belong to families where the family Dharma has been destroyed. For people from families which have been corrupted, overcome by Adharma for all the reasons Arjuna has described — what is the final consequence?

For people from all of those families whose Dharma has been destroyed — all those families who have been overcome by Adharma — what is the consequence?

In the third line — Narake Vasaha — Vasaha Dharmah Narake — in hell. Niyatam — certainly, choicelessly. Dharmah Narake — in hell — which means after this life is over, your next life will be in hell. Bhavati — takes place.

So, Narake Vasaha Bhavati — they will dwell in hell, they will go to hell, as we would say.

Iti Anushushruma — Iti — thus; Anushushruma — thus have we heard.

And here — notice — Arjuna is not arguing in silly terms. He is making sense. Those who violate Dharma will suffer the consequences, which includes going to hell. That part is absolutely correct, But all of this argument has been based on a false premise, and that’s why the whole argument ends up being invalid even though parts of it sound very convincing. The whole argument fails, however, because it is based on a false premise. Remember the quotation:

Dharmā rakṣati rakṣitāḥ, dharmā rakṣitāḥ — when it is protected, dharmā rakṣati — protects us. This war, the Mahabharata battle, must be fought to protect dharma.

So now Arjuna concludes very dramatically — two more verses he speaks, and some very dramatic verses. He says:

He begins, aho batāḥ — “Oh my God!” Hindi mein bhā, pray bhā, pha. “Oh my God,” he says.

In the second line: vayam — we; vyavasitāḥ — have decided, we are committed; kartum — to do, to commit.

To commit what? First line — mahat pāpam — not just pāpa, sin; mahat pāpam — this is great sin, there is great sin. Destroying our family — destroying the family means you destroy the family dharma. Destroying the family dharma means the whole society crumbles. Whole society crumbles means everyone ends up going to hell — this is Arjuna’s argument.

So he says: vyāmā yad rājasukhalobhena — we are committed, kartum — to do mahat pāpam — to commit this terrible sin.

What is the terrible sin?

In the last line: we are udyatāḥ — we are ready to, we are ready to do what? Hantum — to kill. We are — udyatāḥ is actually “engaged.” We are engaged in killing our own families. The war hasn’t quite started, which is why I said “we’re ready to,” but it literally means we are engaged — hantum — in killing svajanam — our own people, our own family.

We are ready, we are about to engage in this horrible battle in which we’re going to fight against and destroy our own family — with all of its consequences.

Why are we doing this? Rājasukhalobhena — due to lobha, greed, desire. Desire for what? Rāja — ruling the kingdom; and sukha — all the pleasure and happiness that you get from being victorious and ruling the kingdom.

Do you see something wrong here?

Arjuna is saying that we’re about to fight this battle because we are greedy for the kingdom and for the pleasures of the kingdom.

Absolutely not.

Arjuna has argued like this previously also — it’s not true. This is not a battle over real estate, territory, like so many battles are. It’s not a battle over resources like oil and minerals. It’s not a battle over power.

We come back to this again and again — it is a battle to restore dharma. But Arjuna, because his thinking is overcome by his emotions, he has lost sight of that crucial fact — that this is a dharma yudha. It’s a battle in which, if he fails to fight, the consequences are far worse.

And because his thinking is distorted, he resorts to all kinds of false arguments — distorted thinking.

And in the last verse that he speaks — not the last verse of the chapter — he speaks one more verse to Sri Krishna, and it shows the extent to which his thinking has been distorted. Look:

Starting the third line: Dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ — the sons of Dhritarashtra, referring to the whole Kaurava army. So, if the sons of Dhritarashtra — hanyuḥ, rane — on the battlefield — hanyuḥ — if they were to kill…

Whom?

In the first line: mām — me. I forgot that yadi — the very first word — yadi — if. Yadi, if dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ — the sons of Dhritarashtra — hanyuḥ — if they were to kill mām — me — on a battlefield.

And Arjuna makes it more dramatic. He says: if they were to kill me, aśastram — in the second line — having no weapons; apratīkāram — in the first line — without resisting.

Arjuna says: if they were to kill me — me, not holding on to a weapon; me, not resisting. If they were to kill me — and if they were śastrapāṇayaḥ — wielding weapons…

So Arjuna says: if they, wielding their weapons, were to kill me on a battlefield, and if I were standing there without resisting, unarmed — and they were to kill me — he says:

Tan me kṣemataram bhavet — that, for me, would be best. That would be excellent, if they were to kill me on a battlefield.

Notice what Arjuna’s proposing here. He would stand on a battlefield, unarmed, without resisting, and let them kill him with their weapons.

This is suicide he is proposing.

In America, there’s an expression: “suicide by cop,” which means someone who wants to die — someone who wants to commit suicide but wants to do it in some dramatic way. What they’ll do is they’ll act in some bizarre way, and when police come, they will act as though they’re carrying a gun and act as though they’re about to shoot the police.

This fellow has no gun. This fellow pretends to have a gun and pretends to be ready to shoot the policeman. The policemen really think he’s got a gun, so what do the police do? They shoot him dead.

We call this suicide by cop.

The point is — it’s suicide. And what Arjuna’s proposing is suicide.

Suicide, obviously, is adharma. But more than that, it shows the extent to which his thinking has been distorted. People who do take their lives do so because pain and suffering has distorted their thinking to such a degree that they think that suicide is the best solution for their problem.

Pain and suffering can distort their thinking to such an extent — the same has happened to Arjuna.

In this case, it’s his emotional pain that has distorted his thinking to such an extent that he’s ready to take his own life.

And with this verse, Arjuna concludes his speaking to Sri Krishna. They’re out there in the middle of the battlefield, and now the scene shifts back to the palace, where Sanjaya is describing all of this to the blind king, Dhritarashtra.

Sanjaya says to Dhritarashtra:

Evam uktvā — having spoken thus. Who has spoken thus? Arjuna.

Arjuna evam uktvā — having spoken thus. Where? Sankhye— on a battlefield. Having spoken thus to Sri Krishna on a battlefield, then Arjuna:

Ratha upastha — Arjuna, who was standing — who was standing — ratha, in the chariot. What did he do?

Upaviśat — he sat down. Arjuna, who had been standing in the chariot, upaviśat — sat down.

Not sat down — he sunk.

Remember, he said before he was dizzy. He was overcome by his emotions. He said, “I can’t even stand up anymore. I’m so dizzy.” So he sunk to the seat of the chariot.

Not only did he fall to the seat of the chariot — he srujya, casting aside:

Chāpam — his bow; śarāṁ — along with his arrows.

So, his arrows and bow — casting them on the ground — he falls to the seat of his chariot:

Śoka-saṁvigna-mānasaḥ — and he does so with his manas — his mind — being saṁvigna, tortured, afflicted by śoka — by sorrow, by grief.

So Arjuna, being overwhelmed by grief, throws his bows and arrows aside and falls to the seat of his chariot.

Arjuna is already defeated on the battlefield — defeated by his own emotions.

You know where the story goes.

Now it becomes Sri Krishna’s job, as it were, to get Arjuna going again — to free Arjuna from his emotional distress so that he can fight this war — emotional distress.

The title of this Chapter 1 — Arjuna Viṣāda Yoga — the chapter on Arjuna’s Viṣāda, on his distress. And this verse 47 is the final verse of the chapter.

Now we have a few minutes here at the end of the class, and I’d like to share with you something special. I think it’s special, and it is a way to review these chapters in a very pleasant way — and it’s by chanting the verses in English.

And I have to introduce this properly.

Many, many years ago, I had been studying Sanskrit for a long time. And every year on Gita Jayanti, we chant the entire Bhagavad Gita. Well, I finally reached a point in my Sanskrit studies where I could chant the Bhagavad Gita with 100% meaning. It took many years to reach that level of proficiency.

But when I finally did, and then on Gita Jayanti — the celebration — we chanted the entire 18 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. Chanting it with meaning was so powerful for me, it brought tears to my eyes — no kidding.

And there’s something about the recitation of these verses with the meaning — which is why I’ve been encouraging you that when we recite at the beginning of each class, that you should glance at the meaning. So the meaning is present in your mind.

Anyway, because of the power of that experience, I thought how wonderful it would be for others to have the same experience.

Of course, if you study Sanskrit thoroughly, you can have that experience — but it’s a big project to learn Sanskrit well enough.

So I decided to try to compose an English translation — an English translation that followed the meter of the original Sanskrit so that the English translation could be chanted in the same way as the original.

And here’s — oops. Okay. Okay. Too fussy here. All right.

So here’s the translation that I composed many, many years ago. And what’s unique about it is how it follows the meter of the original Sanskrit so that you can recite it in the same way.

Look at the first verse — remember the first verse:

Dharma-kṣetre kuru-kṣetre —
“Assembled on a battlefield,”
Kṣetre kuru-kṣa samavitā yuyutsavaḥ —
“Field of Dharma, the Kurus’ land,”
Mama kāḥ pāṇḍavāś caiva —
“There stand my sons and Pando’s sons,”
Kim akurvata sañjaya —
“What did they do, O Sanjaya?”

You see how it works?

So it’s an English translation crafted to follow the meter of the original so that we can chant the English verses with the same meter as the original Sanskrit. And that’s what we’re going to do now.

I should also mention that this version is slightly abridged — so not all of the 700 verses are included. Some verses are combined. Some verses are skipped. About half — instead of 700 verses — roughly 360-some verses are present in this translation.

So by chanting the English translation, we can get an overview of Chapter One That we’ve just studied in quite some detail — so that’s what we’re going to do now.

For the first two verses, listen and repeat. After those first two verses, then you’ll get the rhythm. And then, starting with the third verse, we’ll chant together. And in this way, we’ll review Chapter One. Repeat after me:

“Sons, there stand my sons and Pando’s sons.
What did they do, O Sanjaya?
What did they do, O Sanjaya?”

Sanjaya said:

“Sanjaya said,
Seeing the Pandava’s forces,
Seeing the Pandava’s forces
Drawn for battle, prepared for war,
Drawn for battle, prepared for war.”

Prince Duryodhana then approached —
Prince Duryodhana then approached
His teacher Drona, and he said —
His teacher Drona, and he said…

Oops — and we can chant together now. It’s not too difficult. Chant with me. It’s fine:

“Behold, O Master, standing here
The mighty troops of Pando’s sons
Organized by your shrewd pupil,
Dristadyumna, Drupada’s son.

Archers bold who in war can match
Even Bhima and Arjuna:
Abhimanyu, Virata too —
All of them mighty warrior chiefs.

O Drona, may you now observe
Our own warriors, illustrious:
Bhisma, Karna, Ashvatthama,
And Kripa, victorious.

Many other heroes stand here,
Who have staked their own lives for me,
Equipped with weapons of all kinds,
Highly skilled in the art of war.

The strength of our own troops is vast —
Bhisma protects them all from harm.
But their troops’ might is limited,
Even though Bhima guards them all.

Then the conches and kettle drums,
Cymbals, tabors and trumpets shrill
All resounded quite suddenly,
Blaring forth so tumultuously.

As in a glorious chariot
To which white stallions had been yoked
Stood Lord Krishna and Arjuna —
On holy conches they did blow.

Yudhishthira and Bhima too,
Abhimanyu and Drupada,
Dristadyumna and Shikhandi —
Upon great conches they all blew.

The hearts of Dhritarashtra’s sons
Were shattered by the dreadful roar —
Blaring loudly, resounding far
Through the sky and around the earth.

Then seeing Dhritarashtra’s sons —
Their swords raised high, prepared to fight —
Arjuna, taking up his bow,
Addressed Lord Krishna with these words.

Arjuna said:

‘O Krishna, steer our chariot
Between both armies gathered here
So I can see those eager to fight
Whom I must now engage in war.’

Sanjaya said:

Arjuna then beheld them all —
His uncles, teachers, brothers too,
Nephews, cousins and grandfathers,
Sons and grandsons and friends as well.

He surveyed all those gathered near,
Amassed in armies on both sides —
Then, with his great compassion stirred,
Arjuna said in deep despair:

Arjuna said:

‘O Krishna, seeing my own folk
Here assembled, eager to fight —
My body shakes, my limbs fall limp,
My mouth is parched, my hair on end.

My bow slips from my quaking hand,
And my skin seems to burn with fire.
My mind is spinning round and round —
No longer can I even stand.

Our own teachers and relatives,
For whom we are prepared to fight —
All stand arrayed for battle here,
Giving up their own lives and wealth.

I do not want to slaughter them —
Even if I am slain instead.
Since after killing our own folks,
How could we live in happiness?

How could we not be wise enough
To turn back from this dreadful sin
By discerning the awful wrong
Of destroying our family?

If our family is destroyed,
Ancient dharma will perish too.
And when the dharma has been lost,
Adharma will prevail for all.

The social order will decline,
And our women will be defiled.
Those whose clans are corrupted thus
Are damned to hell — so we have heard.

Oh alas, we are now prepared
To commit such a grievous sin —
Driven to slay our kith and kin
By our greed to reclaim the throne.

If Dhritarashtra’s well-armed sons
Were to slay me while I did stand —
Unarmed, resisting not at all —
This would be far better for me.’

Sanjaya said:

Arjuna, having spoken thus,
Slumped down upon the chariot seat —
Casting off his arrows and bow,
Afflicted by great misery.

That’s our overview of Chapter One — nice to have a good chant together. If you like this English translation, I’ve just posted on our — on my YouTube channel — a very nice setting of all 18 chapters recited in English.

And you can find a link to that video in the video description on this YouTube video. So please have a look at that if you enjoy this English chanting.

That concludes our study of Chapter One. When we meet next time, we’ll begin with Chapter Two of the Bhagavad Gita.

Chadduḥ kabhāg bhavetā
Asato mā sad gamaya
Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
Mrityor mā amritam gamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.