Why did the same Arjuna who didn’t want to kill his own relatives before the war want to kill Yudhishthira?

From: Apurva Pradhan

 “Gandiva Vow”. Arjuna was ready to kill his own brother to keep a Vow. The same Arjuna was earlier ready to live like a mendicant instead of killing his kinsmen. Kindly help me understand these two seemingly opposing sides of Arjuna’s nature.

Transcript

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Question by Apoorva Pradhan. Arjuna was ready to kill his own brother to keep a war, but the same Arjuna was earlier ready to live like a mendicant instead of killing his kinsmen. Kindly help me understand these two seemingly opposite sides of Arjuna’s nature.
Answer. Both are different contexts. Arjuna did not want to kill his elders for his own selfish gain.
Selfish gain in the sense that he should be appointed as the king or the part of the ruling family of the world. And he felt that for that purpose rather than killing so many of his loved people, it is better if he just lives as a mendicant. So the accumulation of the kingdom he considered as a matter of personal aggrandizement which is unnecessary.
And so he was ready to leave ready to leave his rights to the kingdom and live like a mendicant. But once Krishna had spoken to Bhagavad Gita and told him how it is important for him as a Kshatriya to perform the duty of a Kshatriya then he had started off on the duty of a Kshatriya. So in the heat of the battle on the 17th day that Karna defeated, disarmed and disgraced Yudhishthira and then let Yudhishthira just flee after being wounded but not killed.
So Yudhishthira felt very humiliated and distressed by this. And Arjuna out of concern for his brother went out of the battlefield to the camp where they were staying to see whether his brother was alright. At that time Yudhishthira was very disturbed because of his defeat and humiliation by Karna and when he saw Arjuna coming to the camp he thought that Arjuna has killed Karna.
So he started glorifying Arjuna and then when Arjuna told the truth he became very angry and he said why have you left the battlefield like this? Are you a coward? And he spoke a lot of things to Arjuna in anger and because of that another thing which he said was that you should cast aside your bow. Throw aside your bow. You are not a real warrior.
So at that time Arjuna had taken a vow that anybody who tells him to cast aside his bow he would kill that person. So now the idea of taking this vow is that nobody will make him renounce his Kshatriya duty. So the possession of the bow is the means by which the Kshatriya can execute his duty of Kshatriya of protecting other people from hurt.
So in one sense it was Arjuna’s commitment to his duty as Kshatriya that was being being expressed by his vow of never leaving, putting aside the Gandiva. And then Yudhishthira told him to put aside the Gandiva. He felt that he has to act on his vow.
Of course Krishna intervened and saved the situation at that time. But the important point is that again both these incidents illustrate how the forms of duty are not just to be understood by a literal understanding of one’s duty from scripture. So one has to keep time, place, circumstances in mind and understand what is the higher duty and what is the lower duty, and then act.
And in both situations it was Krishna who guided Arjuna. So these two are not natures of Arjuna, they are the instincts that came over Arjuna while considering what his duty was. And so these are two incidents.
Actually we understand how even a person who is as cultured as Arjuna can at times become bewildered about duty and can even be on the verge of choosing a wrong duty. So in this case of the Yudhisthira-Arjuna discussion and Arjuna being ready to kill Yudhisthira, Krishna talks very persuasively and he explains how one has to be very sensitive to understand the import of Dharma. And he asks Arjuna don’t just think about the vow, think about the purpose for which you have taken the vow.
And will that purpose be served if you kill your brother like this, who is the Lord of Dharma, who is the personification of Dharma in one sense. And then he says you have fulfilled your vow because you have taken that vow by just insulting Yudhisthira, because insult is worse than death for a Kshatriya. So in that way he says the situation.
So the important point is that not that Arjuna had two different natures, but in two different stressful situations, Arjuna came up with two widely divergent understandings of what he was impelled to do as a duty. In the first case he thought I should not fight and Krishna told him he should fight. In the second case he thought I should attack and Krishna told him I should not attack, that you should not attack.
And in this way we see the subtlety of understanding the principles of Dharma which we can understand only when we are guided by those who are advanced in the knowledge of Dharma as Arjuna was guided by Krishna. Thank you.