Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan 

So now Arjuna is describing the perplexity.

Next verse he is moving from physical to the mental

27 – 46 Arjuna’s lamentation (28 – 46) (some Acharya used the word Arjun Vishad Yoga)

– Arjuna gives following four reasons why he will not fight.

27 – 30 compassion

Bg 1.30

na ca śaknomy avasthātuṁ

bhramatīva ca me manaḥ

nimittāni ca paśyāmi

viparītāni keśava

Word for word: 

na — nor; ca — also; śaknomi — am I able; avasthātum — to stay; bhramati — forgetting; iva — as; ca — and;me — my; manaḥ — mind; nimittāni — causes; ca — also; paśyāmi — I see; viparītāni — just the opposite;keśava — O killer of the demon Keśī (Kṛṣṇa).

Translation: 

I am now unable to stand here any longer. I am forgetting myself, and my mind is reeling. I see only causes of misfortune, O Kṛṣṇa, killer of the Keśī demon.

na ca śaknomy avasthātuṁ, He is saying I am unable to stay here, so Arjuna is standing there ready to fight as a warrior but now he is saying I can’t stand here, not only Gandiva is slipping but I cannot stand here na ca śaknomy avasthātuṁ, and not only I am effected physically bhramatīva ca me manaḥ, I am feeling vertigo I am feeling my mind is racing here and there and whatever I think of I don’t know what I should do nimittāni ca paśyāmi, viparītāni keśava, so whatever I am seeing I am seeing all viparītāni, it is all inauspicious indicative of disaster tragedy, so at another level this nimittā means causes or symbol omens, so now speaking Arjuna is having this emotion and Arjuna can also say that all these are omen that is going to happen, regarding omen when one has knowledge he can see deeper. It is mentioned in Anand Vrindavan Champu that when Sri Krishna is caught in the coils of Kaliya omens were seen topographically, physiologically and biologically, they show dark clouds, thunders, meteors. On ground they saw bull braying owls hooting and at body level they saw their body twitching, so they understood great calamity is about to be fall and everyone in Vrindavan ran out to Kaliya Dhah / kund and they saw Krishna is in danger, so it is described that everyone from old people to one year old baby everyone ran. 

Essence of first chapter is, Incomprehensible is not insensible -> I cannot understand doesn’t mean that there is no sense to it, there may be God’s plan. When we think that we can judge everything by our intelligence then incomprehensible can be divested  why this is happening why…why…why. So instead of asking why, we should ask how now. Instead of asking why it is happening, we should think how we should serve Krishna in this situation. When a thing doesn’t make sense it may be that we are not able to make sense out of it but Krishna has planned something. So Arjuna shows us how now in 2.6, 7, 8, he asked Krishna, so one enquires so we will not be able to ask Krishna directly, so we can turn to BG and we can ask Guru, Sadhu and Shastra, and we can learn from them slowly, we may not get immediate clarification like Arjuna got through question-answer, but gradual illumination will come to our heart if we turn to Krishna and seek His guidance. 

Srila Prabhupada mentioned: Everyone is interested in himself and his own welfare. No one is interested in the Supreme Self. 

Because no one is interested in Supreme self, the conditioned soul forgets this and therefore suffers material pains, so when we are self-centered sooner or later we will face trouble and Arjuna thought that his victory in the battle would only be a cause of lamentation for him.

OK I am here to fight but if I win I will lose all my relatives so what is the point? And I can’t leave also, I am Kshetriya, I can’t leave so what I should do? so he was seeing everything inauspicious here.

End of transcription.