Wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita 2

Sanjaya said:

1. To him who was thus overwhelmed with pity and sorrowing, and whose eyes were dimmed with tears, Madhusudana spoke these words: 

The Blessed Lord said:

2. In such a crisis, whence comes upon you, O Arjuna, this dejection, un-Aryalike, disgraceful and contrary to the attainment of heaven? 


3. Yield not to unmanliness, O son of Prithâ! Ill does it become you. Cast off this mean faint-heartedness and arise, O scorcher of your enemies!

Arjuna said:

4. —But how can I, in battle, O slayer of Madhu, fight with arrows against Bhishma and Drona, who are rather worthy to be worshipped, O destroyer of foes!

5. Surely it would be better even to eat the bread of beggary in this life than to slay these great-souled masters. But if I kill them, even in this world, all my enjoyment of wealth and desires will be stained with blood.

6. And indeed I can scarcely tell which will be better, that we should conquer them, or that they should conquer us. The very sons of Dhritarâshtra—after slaying whom we should not care to live—stand facing us.

7. With my nature overpowered by weak commiseration, with a mind in confusion about duty, I supplicate You. Say decidedly what is good for me. I am Your disciple. Instruct me who have taken refuge in You.

8. I do not see anything to remove this sorrow which blasts my senses, even were I to obtain unrivaled and flourishing dominion over the earth, and mastery over the gods.

Sanjaya said:

9. Having spoken thus to the Lord of the senses, Gudâkesha, the scorcher of foes, said to Govinda, "I shall not fight," and became silent.

—Bhagavad Gita, 2:1-9