अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि ।ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि ॥
atha cettvamimaṃ dharmyaṃ saṃgrāmaṃ na kariṣyasitataḥ svadharmaṃ kīrtiṃ ca hitvā pāpamavāpsyasi
But if thou dost not this battle for the Right, then hast thou abandoned thy duty and virtue and thy glory, and sin shall be thy portion.
Gītā 2·33For there is continually a struggle between right and wrong, justice and injustice, the force that protects and the force that violates and oppresses, and when this has once been brought to the issue of physical strife, the champion and standard-bearer of the Right must not shake and tremble at the violent and terrible nature of the work he has to do; he must not abandon his followers or fellow-fighters, betray his cause and leave the standard of Right and Justice to trail in the dust and be trampled into mire by the blood-stained feet of the oppressor, because of a weak pity for the violent and cruel and a physical horror of the vastness of the destruction decreed. His virtue and his duty lie in battle and not in abstention from battle; it is not slaughter, but non-slaying which would here be the sin.
