Gita 01.44 When our emotion rules our reason, we rationalize a one-sided view of reality

Bhagavad Gita 1.44 Arjuna is now concluding his arguments and he is expressing lamentation about his actions that he was about to embark on he feels that the action that he is about to do is not just wrong but grievously wrong that we are all determined to engage in that now why are we doing it out of greed for kingdom for the pleasure of owning a kingdom we are ready to kill our own people we are engaged in that then we emotionally we human beings have an emotional side and a rational side and both need to be used in a proper balanced way for us to make proper make sound decisions now reason is more unemotional it is more objective and reason enables us to see both sides of the argument emotion on the other hand drags and revets our vision to one side of the argument and makes it difficult for us to perceive why the other person is saying or doing what they are saying or doing their emotion polarizes positions and paralyzes discussions reason helps break down the wall and helps bend ridges however this constructive role can be played by reason only when it is accompanied by emotion or at least when it is not blocked by emotion that means that it is working to that we use reason for making our case in a way that makes sense to others and we also try to use reason to understand to make sense of what others are saying now emotion can also facilitate understanding when emotion engenders empathy when we instead of trying to put others in their place we try to see things from their place that means we try to we focus on trying to understand what others are doing and where they are coming from but sometimes when we are too attached to our own position we see everything from our side and we think our side to be the only side of reality we don't appreciate that reality can have other sides including sides that enable us to perceive things holistically so in the case of Arjun here his train of thoughts is being fuelled so forcefully by the fuel of emotion that reason has simply become an obedient servant of emotion and he is thinking that the only reason we are fighting against our opponents who are actually our own relatives is because we want we have become so greedy for a kingdom he is thinking how can we be so greedy how can we justify such greed in a situation where we actually have no reason no justification that how can we kill just for getting a kingdom he considers killing to be an unconscionable crime however the fact of the matter is that killing is not unconscionable it is a reaction to killing it is yes it is the reason for killing it is the rationale for the fight which is to establish Dharma in terms of Paradharma the harmonization of human society with the will of God that is the rationale for the fight and unless we recognize this rationale we can't move forward progressively in any direction in our life so it's vital each one of us to take steps forward in the progressive direction till we can attain success till we can take some decisions which will take us towards success so Arjun is now saying here that I can't fight how can I fight at what is actually a fight for Dharma he is seeing as a fight for Lobha as a fight that will lead to the destruction of Dharma but unfortunately what he is perceiving is only one side of the reality and the very limited side and Bhagavad Gita will guide him through philosophical reason to understand what he should be doing so the important thing is that every single one of us has to make decisions and these decisions have to be crafted in extremely responsible ways which don't alienate us from the people around us at the same time it will alienate us from the God who is the source of all of us so Arjun is talking throughout about Dharma but he is not talking about the well of the Dharmakrit or the Lord of Dharma who is the maker of Dharma and the protector of Dharma that is Krishna and Krishna's will is the foundation of Dharma and Krishna's will enables Arjun to Krishna's will is what will enable Arjun to fight empower him to fight and will ensure that the result of the fight turns out to be right the purpose for the fight is right and the result of the fight will also ultimately be right.