TWO: THE PHILOSOPHY OF DISCRIMINATION
Sanjaya then told how the Lord Shri Krishna, seeing Arjuna overwhelmed with compassion, his
eyes dimmed with flowing tears and full of despondency, consoled him:
“The Lord said: My beloved friend! Why yield, just on the eve of battle, to this weakness
which does no credit to those who call themselves Aryans, and only brings them infamy
and bars against them the gates of heaven?
O Arjuna! Why give way to unmanliness? O thou who art the terror of thine enemies!
Shake off such shameful effeminacy, make ready to act!
Arjuna argued: My Lord! How can I, when the battle rages, send an arrow through
Bheeshma and Drona, who should receive my reverence?
Rather would I content myself with a beggar’s crust that kill these teachers of mine, these
precious noble souls! To slay these masters who are my benefactors would be to stain the
sweetness of life’s pleasures with their blood.
Nor can I say whether it were better that they conquer me or for me to conquer them, since
I would no longer care to live if I killed these sons of Dhritarashtra, now preparing for
fight.
My heart is oppressed with pity; and my mind confused as to what my duty is. Therefore,
my Lord, tell me what is best for my spiritual welfare, for I am Thy disciple. Please direct
me, I pray.
For should I attain the monarchy of the visible world, or over the invisible world, it would
not drive away the anguish which is now paralysing my senses.”
Sanjaya continued: “Arjuna, the conqueror of all enemies, then told the Lord of All-Hearts that he
would no fight, and became silent, O King!
Thereupon the Lord, with a gracious smile, addressed him who was so much depressed in the midst
of the two armies.
Lord Shri Krishna said: Why grieve for those for whom no grief is due, and yet profess
wisdom? The wise grieve neither for the dead nor the living.
There was never a time when I was not, nor thou, nor these princes were not; there will
never be a time when we shall cease to be.
As the soul experiences in this body infancy, youth and old age, so finally it passes into
another. The wise have no delusion about this.
Those external relations which bring cold and heat, pain and happiness, they come and
go; they are not permanent. Endure them bravely, O Prince!
The hero whose soul is unmoved by circumstance, who accepts pleasure and pain with
equanimity, only he is fit for immortality.
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