Gita 01.34 – Arjuna’s evolved emotion and reason ready to be raised to the summit by Gita wisdom

Bhagavad Gita 1.34 1.34 1.34 1.34 1.34 1.34 So Arjuna is continuing the description of the list of people who will be killed if he continues to persevere in this war so he is describing a list like this or rather the Bhagavad Gita is describing a list like this a second time the first time was when Arjuna looked so 1.34 1.34 1.34 so that was what point 26 26 so there it is the narrator that is Sanjay who is describing the list and here it is Arjuna who is himself describing so the So, in both cases, the point is that there are so many relatives who are on the, who are assembled on the battlefield and who are going to die.

And their death will be emotional and social disaster. And that social disaster will be talked about later when he talked about Kulakshya Pranakshyanti in verses 39, 40, 41 onward like that. Right now, he's talking about the pointlessness of life without loved ones and who are the loved ones without whom he will have to live.

That is what he's talking about here. So now, there is a slight difference in the two lists. There it was Tatra, Pashishtan, Partha.

So, Partha saw this, Sanjay is describing this. So, a similar double description of things happens in the 11th chapter when, or actually in the 11th chapter, there is a triple description of things, of the Vishwaroopa. First Krishna describes what he is going to reveal, then Sanjay reveals, or Sanjay describes what Arjuna is seeing and then Arjuna describes what he is seeing.

So, Arjuna's description is there in the longest, but it's preluded by two descriptions. So here also, now there is a double description, Sanjay describes what Arjuna is seeing and then Arjuna describes what he is seeing. So here, when Sanjay has been describing it is, Pitranatha Pitamaha, Tatra, Pashishtan, Partha, Pitranatha Pitamaha, so Acharyan, Matulan, Bhratrun, so fathers, grandfathers, uncles, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, Putran, Pautran, Sakhinstatham, so sons, grandsons, friends, Sashuran, Surdas Chaiva, Sashuran is father-in-law and Surdas Chaiva, very intimate friends.

So, Sakhin is just general friends, Surdan is very heart-to-heart friends. So, here, he is basically describing 10 different categories of people, Sanjay describes them and if you look here, in 1.33-34, the set of verses is combined together by Shri Prabhupada in 32-35 as it's one unit of thought, within that the list comes in 33-34, the list is Acharya, Pitra, Putra, Chaiva, Pitamaha, so there is a teacher, father, son, grandfather and then Matulan, Sashuran, Pautran, so till here, the list is the same and then here something else is added, Shalaha, Sambandhinastatha, so here it does not include the Bhratrun, he does not include the Sakhims, he does not include the Surdas, but otherwise, the list is the same. So, here, primarily, Arjuna is talking more in terms of his relations, so swajanam hi kathum hatvahi, sukhina syama dhavam, by killing my own people, how can I be happy, so keeping that in mind, the point which he is making is, he is describing a list of relatives, Shalaha, so brothers-in-law, Sambandhinastatha and Sambandhi is a general describer for all relatives.

Now, brothers-in-law can refer to various people, it can refer to Jayadrath also, in a long-distance way, Jayadrath was married to Lakshmana and Lakshmana was like a sister to the Pandavas, to Arjuna also, of course, she was sister of Duryodhana, so, I cannot bring it upon myself to kill them, even if they decide to kill me, why, because that is the only thing that will happen, gnatopi madhusudana, it's a war and either you win or the opponent wins and the opponent wins means you lose, so he is saying, etanahantum gnatopi madhusudana, even if they kill me, I cannot bring myself to kill them, what good is there in that, what happiness will be there in that, this actually reveals the depth of Arjuna's concern, it's the fact that he is ready to even quote death, indicates the depth to which he is guided by inner principles, even though his inner principles may not be the highest and Krishna will reveal the highest principle of acting for the spiritual welfare of oneself and for the spiritual welfare of everyone by acting in devotional service to Krishna, but at this level also, what Arjuna is not just developing a case of nerves, where when the big moment comes up, a person gets a nervous breakdown and is unable to perform, sometimes cricketers may choke at critical moments, the tension of the moment gets to them and they know what is the right thing to do, just cool down, apply themselves and play on, but they are just not able to play on, but Arjuna, what he is going through is not a choking like that, Arjuna is actually giving reasons, from the ultimate spiritual perspective, his reasoning may not be correct, but at his level, he is giving good reasoning, reasonable reasoning he is doing about what is the use of killing all my relatives and he is also evaluating the cost and saying if I don't kill, they will kill me and still I am ready to accept that, because that will be preferable than killing our own people and extent to which he is ready for such a thing will be revealed in subsequent verses, so here we see both Arjuna's affection for his relatives and also his capacity to reason and both his capacity for emotion and his capacity for reason will be developed further higher by the wisdom of the Gita, thus Arjuna will reverse his decision and take up the fight, not because suddenly he becomes heartless, but because the wisdom of the Gita will expand his heart and will enable him to see how fighting is the best thing for him and for others also involved, but that he can be able to perceive when he has a spiritual vision, right now because he has a material vision, he naturally thinks that fighting is pointless and even if it means his own dying, he is ready to accept that to avoid pointless fighting and thus Arjuna reveals his own sensitivity and thoughtfulness through his words, thank you.