पापमेवाश्रयेदस्मान् हत्वैतानाततायिनः ।तस्मान्नार्हा वयं हन्तुं धार्तराष्ट्रान्स्वबान्धवान् ।स्वजनं हि कथं हत्वा सुखिनः स्याम माधव ॥
pāpamevāśrayedasmān hatvaitānātatāyinaḥtasmānnārhā vayaṃ hantuṃ dhārtarāṣṭrānsvabāndhavānsvajanaṃ hi kathaṃ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava
Sin will take hold of us in slaying them. though they are the aggressors. So it is not fit that we kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our kinsmen; indeed how may we be happy, O Madhava, killing our own people?
Gītā 1·36These are they for whose sake life and happiness are desired, our “own people”. Who would consent to slay these for the sake of all the earth, or even for the kingdom of the three worlds? What pleasure can there be in life, what happiness, what satisfaction in oneself after such a deed? The whole thing is a dreadful sin,—for now the moral sense awakens to justify the revolt of the sensations and the emotions. It is a sin, there is no right nor justice in mutual slaughter; especially are those who are to be slain the natural objects of reverence and of love, those without whom one would not care to live, and to violate these sacred feelings can be no virtue, can be nothing but a heinous crime.
