Chapter 2, Verse 1

Sanskrit

सञ्जय उवाच तं तथा कृपयाविष्टमश्रुपूर्णाकुलेक्षणम्। विषीदन्तमिदं वाक्यमुवाच मधुसूदनः॥

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca taṃ tathā kṛpayāviṣṭam aśrupūrṇākulekṣaṇam viṣīdantam idaṃ vākyam uvāca madhusūdanaḥ

Translation (per Swami’s paraphrase)

Sanjaya said: To him — overcome with pity, eyes filled with tears, agitated, sunk in despondency — Madhusudana (Krishna) spoke these words.

Concepts discussed

• karpanya — Arjuna’s state at this moment is the textbook illustration

Characters present

• sanjaya (speaker), arjuna (the “him”), krishna (as Madhusudana)

Swami’s commentary

This is the first verse of Chapter 2, but Krishna has not yet spoken. Sanjaya is still narrating. He describes Arjuna‘s condition at the end of Chapter 1: grieving, tear-filled, agitated, collapsed. The verse is pure setup — it identifies the state of the student just before the teaching begins.

Swami takes care to mark the psychology here: this is the state of karpanya, helplessness. Arjuna has run out of his own strategies. But note — he has not yet asked for help. Krishna’s response in 2.2–2.3 will be measured accordingly: not yet Vedanta, just a rebuke meant to shake Arjuna out of paralysis and move him toward surrender.

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 1 [50:13]–[51:25]: Sanjaya describes Arjuna — grieving, nearly in tears, sitting in depression.