Bhagavad Gita 1.46

evaṁ uktvārjunaḥ saṅkhye

rathopastha upāviśat

visṛjya sa-śaraṁ cāpaṁ

śoka-saṁvigna-mānasaḥ

 

“Thus speaking, Arjuna, torn inside,

Set his bow and arrows aside.

Upon his chariot seat he sank,

His heart heavy, his mind blank.”

 

My dear Lord, the challenges that the world throws upon me can sometimes be so complicated as to be overwhelming, stultifying, and paralyzing. Just as Arjuna cast aside his bow, unwilling and unable to fight, many are the times when I have felt like casting aside my metaphorical bow—losing my will to fight against problems that seem unfair, unending, and unsolvable.

Please, O Lord, bless me so that the emotion of the moment does not become the basis for decisions whose consequences extend far beyond the moment. Let me remember that however messed up things may be—around me and even inside me—still, you are in charge of both the outer world and the inner world. Even if I lose the will to fight a particular battle in this world, let me never lose the will to connect with you.

Just as you blessed Arjuna with the wisdom to see light amid darkness, bless me, O Lord, so that I can find shelter in your words and let them become my guiding light when the world around me envelops me in blinding darkness. And when my own mind compounds the darkness, grant me, O Lord, I beg you, the remembrance that the light coming from you is greater than the darkness coming at me from outside and from inside.

Let me live not in fear of the world’s darkness, but in the hope of your light.

***

01.46 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.