I am your student: teach me

Where we are

Sañjaya is still describing the scene to the blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra. In the previous reading Krishna spoke for the first time, telling the tearful Arjuna to throw off weakness of heart and stand up, and Arjuna objected: how can he aim arrows at Bhīṣma, the family's revered elder, and Droṇa, his own teacher? Here Arjuna keeps arguing for a moment, then does something new. He stops making his case, admits he is lost, and asks Krishna, as a student, to teach him.

The verses

1. 2.5

   Arjuna says: better to live on alms, even in this world, than to kill these great-hearted teachers. If I kill my elders, whatever pleasures I enjoy here, wealth and comfort included, would be stained with their blood.

   अShow the SanskritHide the Sanskrit for verse 2.5

   गुरूनहत्वा हि महानुभावान्
   श्रेयो भोक्तुं भैक्ष्यमपीह लोके ।
   हत्वार्थकामांस्तु गुरूनिहैव
   भुञ्जीय भोगान् रुधिरप्रदिग्धान् ॥ ५ ॥

   gurūn ahatvā hi mahānubhāvāñ / śreyo bhoktuṃ bhaikṣyam apīha loke
   hatvārthakāmāṃs tu gurūn ihaiva / bhuñjīya bhogān rudhirapradigdhān

   Say it

   goo-roon uh-hut-vaa hi muh-haa-noo-bhaa-vaan
   shray-yo bhok-toom bhaik-shyum uh-pee-huh lo-kay
   hut-vaar-thuh-kaa-maams too goo-roon i-hai-vuh
   bhoon-jee-yuh bho-gaan roo-dhi-ruh-pruh-dig-dhaan

   Word by word

   gurūn ahatvā

   without killing the teachers / elders

   hi

   indeed

   mahānubhāvān

   the great-souled / highly esteemed ones

   śreyaḥ

   better / more wholesome

   bhoktum bhaikṣyam

   to eat by begging

   api iha loke

   even here in this world

   hatvā artha-kāmān

   having killed those who seek wealth and desire

   hatvā artha-kāmān tu gurūn

   but having killed the elders, (though) bent on gain

   bhuñjīya bhogān

   I would enjoy pleasures

   rudhira-pradigdhān

   smeared with blood

2. 2.6

   He goes on: we cannot even tell which outcome weighs more for us, that we win or that they win. The sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra stand facing us, and they are the very people after whose death we would not want to go on living.

   अShow the SanskritHide the Sanskrit for verse 2.6

   न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो
   यद्वा जयेम यदि वा नो जयेयुः ।
   यानेव हत्वा न जिजीविषाम-
   स्तेऽवस्थिताः प्रमुखे धार्तराष्ट्राः ॥ ६ ॥

   na caitad vidmaḥ kataran no garīyo / yad vā jayema yadi vā no jayeyuḥ
   yān eva hatvā na jijīviṣāmas / te 'vasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ

   Say it

   nuh chai-tud vid-muh kuh-tuh-run no guh-ree-yo
   yud vaa juh-yay-muh yuh-di vaa no juh-yay-yooh
   yaan ay-vuh hut-vaa nuh ji-jee-vish-aa-muhs
   tay uh-vuh-sthi-taah pruh-mook-hay dhaar-tuh-raash-traah

   Word by word

   na ca etat vidmaḥ

   and we do not know this

   katarat naḥ garīyaḥ

   which of the two is heavier / better for us

   yad vā jayema

   whether we should conquer

   yadi vā naḥ jayeyuḥ

   or whether they should defeat us

   yān eva hatvā

   those whom, having killed

   na jijīviṣāmaḥ

   we would not wish to live

   te avasthitāḥ

   they stand / are stationed

   pramukhe

   in front / opposite us

   dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ

   the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra

3. 2.7

   Arjuna admits: a weakness of spirit has struck at my very nature, and my mind is bewildered about what is right. So I ask you: tell me clearly and decisively what is truly better. I am your student. I come to you for refuge; teach me.

   अShow the SanskritHide the Sanskrit for verse 2.7

   कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः
   पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसम्मूढचेताः ।
   यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे
   शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥ ७ ॥

   kārpaṇyadoṣopahatasvabhāvaḥ / pṛcchāmi tvāṃ dharmasaṃmūḍhacetāḥ
   yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṃ brūhi tan me / śiṣyas te 'haṃ śādhi māṃ tvāṃ prapannam

   Say it

   kaar-pun-yuh-do-sho-puh-huh-tuh-svuh-bhaa-vuh
   prich-chhaa-mi tvaam dhur-muh-sum-moo-dhuh-chay-taah
   yuch chhray-yuh syaan nish-chi-tum broo-hi tun may
   shish-yus tay hum shaa-dhi maam tvaam pruh-pun-num

   Word by word

   kārpaṇya-doṣa

   the fault of faint-heartedness / pity-weakness

   upahata-svabhāvaḥ

   my nature struck down / impaired

   pṛcchāmi tvām

   I ask you

   dharma-saṃmūḍha-cetāḥ

   mind confused about dharma

   yat śreyaḥ syāt

   what would be truly better

   niścitam

   decided / for certain

   brūhi tat me

   tell that to me

   śiṣyaḥ te aham

   I am your disciple

   śādhi mām

   instruct / correct me

   tvām prapannam

   who has taken refuge in you

4. 2.8

   I cannot see anything that would lift this grief from me, a grief that is drying up my senses, not even if I gained a rich, unrivalled kingdom on earth or rule over the gods themselves.

   अShow the SanskritHide the Sanskrit for verse 2.8

   न हि प्रपश्यामि ममापनुद्याद्
   यच्छोकमुच्छोषणमिन्द्रियाणाम् ।
   अवाप्य भूमावसपत्नमृद्धं
   राज्यं सुराणामपि चाधिपत्यम् ॥ ८ ॥

   na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād / yac chokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām
   avāpya bhūmāv asapatnam ṛddhaṃ / rājyaṃ surāṇām api cādhipatyam

   Say it

   nuh hi pruh-push-yaa-mi muh-maa-puh-nud-yaad
   yuch cho-kum ooch-cho-shuh-num in-dri-yaa-naam
   uh-vaap-yuh bhoo-maav uh-suh-put-num rid-dhum
   raaj-yum soo-raa-naam uh-pi chaa-dhi-puh-tyum

   Word by word

   na hi prapaśyāmi

   for I do not see

   mama apanudyāt

   what would drive away from me

   yat śokam

   that grief

   ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām

   which dries up the senses

   avāpya

   even after obtaining

   bhūmau asapatnam ṛddham

   an unrivalled, prosperous (kingdom) on earth

   rājyam

   a kingdom

   surāṇām api ca ādhipatyam

   and even sovereignty over the gods

Context and commentary

These verses are the turning point of the opening dialogue. In 2.5 Arjuna still argues: better to beg than to win a feast stained with the blood of his elders. The phrase artha-kāmān is read two ways: as describing the elders (“though they are after gain”, a grudging admission that they sided with Duryodhana for their own interests) or as describing the pleasures Arjuna would win. Garīyaḥ in 2.6 literally means “heavier”: he cannot tell which outcome weighs more. Then 2.7 changes his stance. Kārpaṇya is a smallness or meanness of spirit, the fault he says has struck his svabhāva, his own nature; dharma-saṃmūḍha-cetāḥ is a mind bewildered about what is right. Śiṣyas te ’haṃ, “I am your student”, and tvāṃ prapannam, “who has come to you for refuge”, are the formal words of someone asking to be taught. Interpretation: Śaṅkara treats Arjuna's grief and confusion here as the very condition the teaching of the self is meant to cure, which is why Krishna's real instruction starts only after this request. In the Rāmānuja tradition, prapanna, “one who has taken refuge”, carries special weight, because surrender (prapatti) to the divine is central to that school. Some modern readers, Gandhi among them, take the scene as the inner moment when a person stops defending a position and becomes willing to learn. Verse 2.8 adds that no outward prize, not even rule over the gods, could dry up a grief this deep.