Gita 01.34 To retaliate and cause death requires courage, but to not retaliate at the cost of one’s own death requires greater courage

Gita 1.34 so Arjuna is giving the list of his relatives who are there in that war field and he is using that list to boost his argument that he cannot fight against them and he says this point that I do not desire to fight against them and kill them but somebody might say that this is a war and war is cruel business you cannot be sentimental in a war if you don't kill them they are still going to attack you and kill you so better you go ahead and do the needful he says no let them kill me so normally we act with others based on how they act with us so if they are going to kill us they are going to attack us we may attack them back what option do we have Arjuna is saying that he is not going to act based on the idea of quid pro quid tit for tat he says that even if they are bent on killing me still I will not kill them I have lost the desire to attack them this requires a remarkable level of maturity and courage it requires courage to fight against an opponent where there is a chance of being killed it requires courage to stand against an opponent and refuse to fight even when we know that they are not going to kill that they will kill us so Arjuna is certainly not afraid of his own life as we will see in future verses he is afraid of doing wrong he is afraid of acting in a way that will lead to bad karma and that will lead to we will talk about the sinful reactions in the next verse but here he is clearly saying he is saying that they are my relatives they are the people whom I wish to serve and get their appreciation and blessings how can I fight against them we all act based on certain understandings of who we are and what our life is meant to be about if that understanding is distorted then we can't act properly and therefore it is vital for us each one of us to stay focused in understanding ourselves better in understanding our situations better in understanding what makes us think better we usually act based on how the other person is acting but to live according to principles means that our actions are determined not just by others actions but by our principles it is not easy to act like this especially when somebody approaches in an adversarial mood then we want to hit back at them some people think it as a sign of courage that you hit at them and they hit back at they hit us and we will hit back more at them it is interesting Arjuna is a Kshatriya and Kshatriyas are required to fight in fact fighting is a central part of the duty of Kshatriyas and yet Arjuna is expressing reluctance to fight why is that? because he sees that there is just no way he can continue fighting and he can continue doing what he has been doing and not get disheartened by it not face reversals because of it there are higher principles that are driving his actions and the higher principles what they are they will be revealed later of course Krishna will reveal that there are principles even higher than what Arjuna thinks are higher principles and he needs to act according to those highest principles but refusing to let our actions be a function of others actions alone indicates principle centered character whereby the spur for our actions is our principles our values not just how others behave with us in fact if we simply react to others then what are our principles even animals do that animals react to others based on simply each other's strength there is no higher principle might is right if a stronger animal attacks a weaker animal the weaker will flee or the weaker will try to find some cunning way by which to hit back but beyond that there is not much that the animals can do but here Arjuna is acting in a principle centered way or at least he is expressing his intention to act in a principle centered way for the sake of his principles what are the principles that are guiding him right now the principle is that I cannot attack my venerable elders just for the sake of some wealth if they are bent on fighting then fine I will fight and I will let them fight attack me and kill me but I am not going to raise weapons this chapter of the Bhagavad Gita actually reveals Arjuna's qualification for enlightenment we are all impulsive we all have impulses but we need to have intelligence to restrain our impulses and that capacity to restrain our impulses differentiates us from other living beings from non-human beings Arjuna is told over here Arjuna is expressing over here that he is an evolved human being who is not going to let his who is not ready to let his principles be sacrificed on the altar of pleasure or circumstance he is determined to fight till he wins till he is able to fight not against his enemies but fight against the impulses and live up to his principles this is laudable though of course the Gita will reveal higher principles for Arjuna to live by and within those higher principles Arjuna will fight not because the others are attacking and he is going to counter attack but he will fight to establish Dharma. Nonetheless Arjuna's willingness to be ready to lay down his life for the sake of his principles shows that he is eminently qualified for enlightenment Thank you.