Chapter 2, Verses 4–6

Sanskrit

कथं भीष्ममहं संख्ये द्रोणं च मधुसूदन। इषुभिः प्रतियोत्स्यामि पूजार्हावरिसूदन॥4॥

गुरूनहत्वा हि महानुभावान् श्रेयो भोक्तुं भैक्ष्यमपीह लोके। हत्वार्थकामांस्तु गुरूनिहैव भुञ्जीय भोगान् रुधिरप्रदिग्धान्॥5॥

न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो यद्वा जयेम यदि वा नो जयेयुः। यानेव हत्वा न जिजीविषाम- स्तेऽवस्थिताः प्रमुखे धार्तराष्ट्राः॥6॥

Transliteration

kathaṃ bhīṣmam ahaṃ saṅkhye droṇaṃ ca madhusūdana iṣubhiḥ pratiyotsyāmi pūjārhāv arisūdana (4)

gurūn ahatvā hi mahānubhāvān śreyo bhoktuṃ bhaikṣyam apīha loke hatvārtha-kāmāṃs tu gurūn ihaiva bhuñjīya bhogān rudhira-pradigdhān (5)

na caitad vidmaḥ kataran no garīyo yad vā jayema yadi vā no jayeyuḥ yān eva hatvā na jijīviṣāmas te ‘vasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ (6)

Translation (per Swami’s paraphrase)

How can I fight with arrows in battle against Bhishma and Drona, O Madhusudana — men who are worthy of worship, O slayer of foes? (4)

Better in this world to live on alms than to kill these great-souled teachers. If I kill them, even here all that I enjoy will be wealth and pleasures stained with their blood. (5)

We do not know which is better — that we should conquer them, or that they should conquer us. Those whose slaying would make life not worth living stand arrayed against us — the sons of Dhritarashtra. (6)

Concepts discussed

• dharma — Arjuna’s appeal to honor the gurus is a dharma-argument
• adharma — he is casting the proposed fight as adharma
• karpanya — the first signs of the helplessness that verse 2.7 will name

Characters present

• arjuna (addressing Krishna as Madhusudana, slayer of the demon Madhu)
• bhishma, drona — the gurus he cannot bring himself to fight
• kauravas / dhritarashtra‘s sons — the arrayed opposition

Swami’s commentary

These three verses form Arjuna’s reasoned defense of his collapse — his attempt to dress the despair of chapter 1 in the language of dharma. He does not say “I am afraid”; he says “these men deserve worship, killing them would soil any victory, and I do not even know which outcome would be better.” It sounds like moral reasoning. Krishna will not accept it as such.

Three threads run through these verses:

Madhusudana. Arjuna calls Krishna “slayer of Madhu,” the demon — a pointed address. The unspoken question: you killed a demon; how can you now ask me to kill my teachers? The name is a lawyerly move.

Better to live by alms. Line 5 is strong. Arjuna would rather be a mendicant than a king over bloodstained pleasures. Taken at face value it sounds almost renunciate. But Swami notes the difference between this and actual tyaga: renunciation freely chosen before the crisis is different from renunciation invoked at the moment you are asked to do something hard.

“We do not know which is better.” Verse 6 is where genuine doubt finally breaks through. This is closer to the real Arjuna — the man who will soon surrender as a disciple. Krishna is going to fasten onto precisely this opening. You cannot teach someone who is sure. Arjuna, at last, is not sure.

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 2 [~20:00]: Arjuna’s arguments in 2.4–2.6 are common sense with a dharma veneer; Krishna will dismantle them.
• Ep. 2 [~25:00]: The Madhusudana address is pointed — Krishna as slayer of Madhu being asked to condone the killing of teachers.
• Ep. 2 [~30:00]: Verse 2.6’s admission “we do not know which is better” is the first real crack in Arjuna’s certainty — the opening for the teaching.