So right now we are discussing 5th reason for Arjuna for not fighting the first four were:

  1. Compassion
  2. Enjoyment
  3. Sinful reactions
  4. Destruction of family traditions
  5. Indecision

Krishna tries to give Arjuna pep talks saying come on, be a man, fight! But Arjuna counters that, what kind of man will raise weapons against his own teachers and grandfather. Better than that, I will live as a beggar (2.5 and 1.45). But now, he says that actually I am not sure what I should do.

Arjuna’s speech is ambivalent.

BG 2.6

na caitad vidmah kataran no gariyo

yad va jayema yadi va no jayeyuh

yan eva hatva na jijivishamas

te ‘vasthitah pramukhe dhartarashtrah

SYNONYMS

na — nor; ca — also; etat — this; vidmah — do we know; katarat — which; nah — for us; gariyah — better; yat va — whether; jayema — we may conquer; yadi — if; va — or; nah — us; jayeyuh — they conquer; yan — those who; eva — certainly; hatva — by killing; na — never; jijivishamah — we would want to live; te — all of them; avasthitah — are situated; pramukhe — in the front; dhartarashtrah — the sons of Dhritarashtra.

TRANSLATION

Nor do we know which is better — conquering them or being conquered by them. If we killed the sons of Dhritarashtra, we should not care to live. Yet they are now standing before us on the battlefield.

na ca itad, we certainly do not know, vidmah, I do not know,

kataran no gariyo, kataran, which is, gariyo, better,

yad va jayema, we attain Jaya or not yadi va no jayeyuh, either we win or we lose. For instance, in a game—the captain says, I don’t know which is better; my team wins or the other team wins. But if the other team loses, I have no desire to win, let alone celebrate yan eva hatva na jijivishamas.

te ‘vasthitah pramukhe dhartarashtrah, so those who I have no desire to kill, they are here in front of us to fight. Therefore the issue has become so very complex,

Arjuna has three option related to fight:

Fight and Wins – kill his relatives which he doesn’t want and the victory will be tainted with the blood of his relatives.

Fight and Loses – he was not worried about losing this either, but definitely he will not like this.

Doesn’t fight – live a life of beggar – disgrace to Kshetriya, that he will not perform his duty, Krishna has already told him like Anarya, asvargyam, akirti-karam. So it will be dishonor for your race, it will not lead you to haven, and it will lead you to infamy.

So he is confused now:

Lose – lose situation; what should I do? There is nothing to mitigate the situation. How should I move forward; so when he was thinking that I don’t know what to do, this is actually the beginning of intelligence, which means to know what to do when we don’t know what to do is intelligence.

So if I don’t know what to do then, how will I know what to do? So when we don’t know what to do by looking around, then we look upon and pray – seek guidance, seek help from the Supreme Lord Krishna.

And when we do that, it is not that we always have an opportunity to directly hear from Krishna, But Krishna is in our heart and Kirshna is present in the words of Guru, Sadhu and shashtra.

So Krishna will guide us. So Arjuna has come to a mood where he was frozen by indecision, and as he has frozen by indecision. He begins to think about the war, and he starts realizing, “I don’t know, what to do?”

So what one should do, when they don’t know what they should do? One should turn upward, turn towards God. And Arjuna was so fortunate that the same Lord is next to him, so he turned towards and says Krishna, “I surrender to you.”