Gita 01.36 – Contemplate contextual karmic considerations before acting

Bhagavad Gita 1.36 here Arjuna is continuing his description of his reasons why he doesn't want to fight so till now he has described that what will be the pleasure if our relatives are killed and now he is actually describing what to speak of pleasure actually there will be suffering so suffering will come as a reaction karmic reaction to the sin of killing one's relatives that is what he will describe in this verse so पापं एवाश्रजित अस्मान पापं एवाश्रजित so actually it will come upon us आश्र refers to shelter so actually पाप can not offer shelter and we come under it it actually crushes us अस्मान अस्मान now Arjuna is here revealing his knowledge of the scripture and the codes of Kshatriya when he says that आतताईन so आतताई those whose bow is stretched that means those who are when is the bow stretched when a person has placed arrow and is about to shoot the arrow so that means the person is in aggressive mood and is going to attack immediately so आतताईन those who are aggressors such aggressors if somebody comes to say kill one or to plunder one's property or to abduct one's wife or to set fire to one's house so all such aggressors are actually considered to be killable so if somebody gives poison if somebody takes away one's wealth like that so then such aggressors in self-defense one can kill them also that is what is required and one doesn't get any karmic reactions for that now while this fact is true Arjuna knows it he says that actually again the considerations are not so simple here तस्मान नारः वयम्हन्तुम् so this is although they are aggressors and normally in killing aggressors there is no aggressors there is no power but in this case I don't think we should kill them it is not proper for us it does not befit us to kill them धारतराष्ट्रान सबान्दवान because the sons of Dharatarashtra and his relatives सबान्दवान he is with his relatives स्वजनम् हिकतम् हत्त्व because they are all स्वजनम् so सबान्दवान it can refer to Dharatarashtra's friends our friends because the two circles often intersect so he says स्वजनम् हिकतम् हत्तव so if we kill our relatives हिकतम् how can we kill them and if we kill them सुखिन स्याम माधव what happiness can we possibly get how will we be happy माधव oh lord Madhava he is saying so here Arjuna is referring to Krishna by the name Madhava thereby indicating that he is calling upon Krishna oh lord Madhava how can we fight against them you are the Madhava the word refers to one who is the lord of the goddess of fortune so you are meant to bring good fortune to everyone and yet how can you recommend a course of action which will lead to misfortune now of course we could say that actually Krishna has not explicitly recommended a course of action till now but it is understood that till now Krishna and Arjuna were both in the same wavelength and both of them were ready to fight and it was for fighting itself that Arjuna had requested Krishna to become his charioteer and Krishna had consented so although Krishna in the context of the Gita has not explicitly instructed Arjuna to fight till now Arjuna knows that is the default position which both of them had and now Arjuna has changed his position and he is trying to say Krishna how can you hold on to your position how can we gain any pleasure what happiness will be there, what fortune will be there oh lord of the goddess of fortune actually there will be misfortune paapam why because there is there are aggressors who deserve to be killed but relatives deserve to be protected now it is not just in a nepotistic sense where the relatives are culpable but a person because of affection to one's relatives decides to misuse one's power and let the culpable go or scot-free that is not what Arjuna is thinking over here Arjuna is thinking not in nepotistic terms but in dharmic terms he is thinking that killing one's relatives killing anyone is not good in fact but killing one's relatives is especially bad because in this world there are different kinds of relationships but blood relationships are often intimate and the family and the extended family often become a support system a vital support system for the individual when the individual is trying to live in the world and battle against the world's many threats and discouragements so where does the family and the extended family is meant to provide support and shelter if instead the family starts becoming the aggressor starts becoming the attacker then then that is considered definitely wrong so one who is a defender who is supposed to be defending one from attackers because if that person becomes attacker it's almost like betrayal, traitory so actually of course it is the Kauravas who have done such betrayal first it is the Kauravas who have been traitors towards the Pandavas first and Arjuna will talk about this at consideration which is a logical question that comes up next, he will talk about it in the next verses but the important point is that normally family members are the people to whom we have affection to and to whom we are duty bound to protect not at the expense of social justice but if it requires some cost for us individually we should be ready to bear it so Arjuna is saying over here that actually if we fail in our duty to protect our loved ones our relatives, our people then we will be failing in our duty and worse still if leave alone protecting our swajana, our relatives instead we attack them and we kill them then that will be not just failure of duty it will be actually a perversion of duty and how can that be tolerated so Arjuna is giving here forceful reasoning and the problem with that reasoning is that he is operating under limited conception where he is caught amidst duty to family and his duty as a Kshatriya and is unable to resolve the dilemma and that dilemma will be resolved by Krishna by the revelation of even more fundamental identity, an identity of a soul, a servant of Krishna and that identity will resolve Arjuna's conflict between Kula Dharma and Kshatriya Dharma and will enable Arjuna to choose the best course of action and that choice will be revealed in the subsequent verses of the Gita and the wisdom of those verses revealed. Thank you.