Arjuna

The Pandava warrior-prince who receives Krishna’s teaching — the fit student whose questions become ours.

Overview

Arjuna is the third of the five Pandava brothers and the hero of the Mahabharata war. Krishna agrees to be his charioteer (rather than lend his armies) and, on the eve of battle, delivers the Gita to him. Per Shankaracharya’s reading, Arjuna is chosen because a fit student ensures the teaching will have wide dissemination — Krishna is really speaking through Arjuna to all of us.

Arjuna’s collapse (chapter 1). At Arjuna’s request, Krishna drives the chariot to the middle of the battlefield so Arjuna can see who has come to fight him. He sees his grandfather Bhishma, his teacher Drona, his uncles, cousins, and kinsmen arrayed against him. Overcome, he says even victory would be empty — the people for whom he would win the kingdom will be dead. He drops his bow and arrow and sits down in grief. This is the state of karpanya, the hinge of the whole narrative.

Contrast with Duryodhana. Later in the Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna: why do people do wrong even when they don’t want to? Duryodhana had said the same thing to Krishna before the war — “I know dharma, I don’t feel like doing it; I know adharma, I can’t stop myself” — but with no desire to change. Arjuna asks how to change. That single difference is the spiritual path.

Related concepts and entities

• krishna — his charioteer, teacher, and the God who speaks through him
• pandavas — his brothers
• bhishma, drona — elders arrayed against him at Kurukshetra
• duryodhana — the antagonist he fights; the foil to his willingness to change
• karpanya — his psychological state at the end of chapter 1

In the Gita

• 01-summary — his grief and collapse.
• 02-01 — Sanjaya describes his state just before Krishna speaks.
• 02-03 — Krishna addresses him as Partha and Parantapa.
• 02-04-06 — his defense of not fighting.
• 02-07 — the hinge: shishyas te ‘ham, “I am your disciple.”
• 02-08-09 — he rules out external solutions and falls silent.
• 02-11-12 — Krishna’s first Vedanta teaching lands on him.
• 02-13-15 — addressed as Kaunteya (son of Kunti), taught titiksha.
• 02-16 — recipient of the philosophical heart of the Gita.

Aliases in the text

Krishna calls Arjuna by many names, each doing psychological work:

• Partha — son of Pritha (one name of his mother Kunti)
• Kaunteya — son of Kunti; used about 24 times in the Gita
• Parantapa — “scorcher of foes”
• Gudakesha — “conqueror of sleep”; the disciplined one
• Dhananjaya — “winner of wealth”
• Bharata / Purusharshaba — descendant of Bharata / best of men

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 1 [34:10]: Arjuna is the third Pandava and the great hero of the battle.
• Ep. 1 [39:29]: Arjuna sees Bhishma, Drona, uncles, cousins arrayed against him.
• Ep. 1 [40:44]: Even if I win, the victory will be empty — my kinsmen will be dead.
• Ep. 1 [63:53]: Unlike Duryodhana, Arjuna asks how to change.
• Ep. 2 [~15:00]: Kaunteya appears ~24 times in the Gita — Kunti‘s charge to her sons invoked again and again.
• Ep. 2 [~40:00]: Verse 2.7 — shishyas te ‘ham, shadhi mam — Arjuna becomes disciple.