सीदन्ति मम गात्राणि मुखं च परिशुष्यति ।वेपथुश्च शरीरे मे रोमहर्षश्च जायते ॥
sīdanti mama gātrāṇi mukhaṁ ca pariśuṣyativepathuśca śarīre me romaharṣaśca jāyate
Arjuna said: Seeing these my own people, O Krishna, arrayed for battle, my limbs collapse and my mouth is parched, my body shakes and my hair stands on end; Gandiva (Arjuna’s bow) slips from my hand, and all my skin seems to be burning.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
AI translation
His translation
“O Krishna, I behold these kinsmen and friends arrayed in hostile arms and my limbs sink beneath me and my face grows dry, and there are shudderings in my body and my hair stands on end, Gandeva falls from my hand and my very skin is on fire. Yea I cannot stand, my brain whirls and evil omens, O Késhove, meet mine eyes. I can see no blessing for me, having slain my kin in fight. I desire not victory, O Krishna, no nor kingship nor delights. What shall we do with kingship, O Govinda, what with enjoyments, what with life? They for whose sake we desire kingship and enjoyments and delight, lo they all stand in battle against us casting behind them their riches and their lives, our teachers and our fathers and our sons, our grandsires and uncles and the fathers of our wives and our grandsons and our wives’ brothers and the kin of our beloved. These though they slay me, O Madhusudan, I would not slay, no not for the empire of heaven and space and hell, much less for this poor earth of ours. Slaying the sons of Dhritarashtra what joy would be left to us, O Janardana? Sin, sin alone would find lodging in us, if we slew these though our adversaries & foes. Therefore we do not right to slay the children of Dhritarashtra and their friends, for how can we be happy, O Madhove, if we slay our kin? Even though these see not, for their hearts are swept away by greed, error done in the ruin of one’s house and grievous sin in treachery to natural friends, how shall we not understand and turn back from this sin, we who have eyes, O Janardan, for error done in the ruin of our house? When the family dwindles, the eternal ideals of the race are lost, and when ideals are lost, unrighteousness besets the whole race; in the prevalence of unrighteousness, O Krishna, the women of the race go astray, and when women grow corrupt, bastard confusion is born again; but confusion brings the slayers of their race and the race itself to very hell; for the long line of fathers perishes and the food ceases and the water is given no more. By these their sins who bring their race to perdition, fathers they of bastard confusion, the eternal ideals of the nation and the hearth are overthrown; and for men who have lost the ancient righteousnesses of the race, in hell an eternal habitation is set apart, ‘tis told. Alas a dreadful sin have we set ourselves to do, that from greed of lordship and pleasure we have made ready to slay our own kin. Yea even if the sons of Dhritarashtra slay me with their armèd hands, me unarmed and unresisting, it were better & more fortunate for me than this.”
Essays on the Gita
It is typical again of the pragmatic man that it is through his sensations that he awakens to the meaning of his action. He has asked his friend and charioteer to place him between the two armies, not with any profounder idea, but with the proud intention of viewing and looking in the face these myriads of the champions of unrighteousness whom he has to meet and conquer and slay1·22 “in this holiday of fight” so that the right may prevail. It is as he gazes that the revelation of the meaning of a civil and domestic war comes home to him, a war in which not only men of the same race, the same nation, the same clan, but those of the same family and household stand upon opposite sides. All whom the social man holds most dear and sacred, he must meet as enemies and slay,1·26–31 —the worshipped teacher and preceptor, the old friend, comrade and companion in arms, grandsires, uncles, those who stood in the relation to him of father, of son, of grandson, connections by blood and connections by marriage,—all these social ties have to be cut asunder by the sword. It is not that he did not know these things before, but he has never realised it all; obsessed by his claims and wrongs and by the principles of his life, the struggle for the right, the duty of the Kshatriya to protect justice and the law and fight and beat down injustice and lawless violence, he has neither thought it out deeply nor felt it in his heart and at the core of his life. And now it is shown to his vision by the divine charioteer, placed sensationally before his eyes, and comes home to him like a blow delivered at the very centre of his sensational, vital and emotional being.
Writings in Bengali
dṛṣṭvemam svajanaṁ kṛṣṇa yuyutsuṁ samavasthitam
sīdanti mama gātrāni mukhaṁ ca pariśuṣyati (28)
vepathuśca śarīre me romaharṣaśca jāyate
gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt tvak caiva paridahyate (29)
My body trembles and my hair stands on end; the Gandiva slips from my hand and my skin burns.
Arjuna first described his dejection. The great hero Arjuna is overwhelmed and defeated by the sudden rebellion of affection and pity; all the strength of his body has dried up in a moment; the limbs are languid; there is no strength even to stand; the strong hand is unable to hold the Gandiva; symptoms of fever are manifest in the heat of grief; there is weakness of the body; the skin seems to be burning in fire; the mouth has dried up inside; the whole body is trembling intensely; the mind seems to be whirling in that attack. Reading the description of this state we first stop enjoying only that poetic beauty calling it an excessive development of the poet’s vigorous imagination; but if we examine it with subtle judgment, then a deep meaning of this description arises in the mind. Arjuna has fought with the Kurus before also, yet such a state never occurred; now suddenly this internal disturbance has happened by the will of Sri Krishna. Many very strong propensities of the human race defeated and bound by Kshatriya education and high aspiration lie hidden in the bottom of Arjuna’s heart. Purification of the heart does not come by repression; purification of the heart comes by self-control with the help of discrimination and pure intelligence. Repressed propensities and feelings rising from the heart either in this life or in a future life one day attack the intelligence and conquering it drive all actions in the path favourable to their own development. For this reason, he who is kind in this life becomes cruel in another life; he who is lustful and licentious in this life becomes a saint and pure-hearted in another life. Instead of repressing, one has to cleanse the heart by rejecting the propensities with the help of discrimination and pure intelligence. This is called self-control. Self-control is impossible without the removal of the tamasic nature by the influence of knowledge. Therefore Sri Krishna wishes to purify the heart by removing Arjuna’s ignorance and awakening the dormant discrimination. But unless the rejectable propensities are raised from the heart and placed before the intelligence, the intelligence does not get the opportunity to reject them either; moreover, the internal demon and titan are killed by discrimination in the battle itself; then discrimination liberates the intelligence. In the first stage of yoga all the evil propensities that are rooted in the heart attack the intelligence with great force and bewilder the unaccustomed sadhak with fear and grief; this is called the temptation of the Devil in the West; this is the attack of Mara. But that fear and grief are born of ignorance; that temptation is not of the Devil, but of God. The indwelling World-Teacher calls those propensities to attack the sadhak for his good, for the purification of the heart. Just as Sri Krishna is Arjuna’s friend and charioteer in the external world in a physical body, so within him he is the bodiless God and the indwelling Supreme Person; He projected these hidden propensities and feelings on the intelligence with great force at one time. At that terrible blow the intelligence whirled and the strong mental disturbance was immediately expressed in the gross body in the symptoms described by the poet. We know that such physical manifestation of strong unexpected grief and sorrow takes place; it is not outside the common experience of the human race. The Vaishnava Maya of God overwhelmed Arjuna with entire force in a moment; hence this strong disturbance. When unrighteousness assumes the form of tender virtues like pity, love etc., ignorance comes in the disguise of knowledge; thick black Tamas pretending to be bright and white purity says, I am Sattwic, I am knowledge, I am virtue, I am the beloved messenger of God, virtue in the form of virtue-promoter,—then it must be understood that God’s Vaishnava Maya has appeared in the intelligence.
দৃষ্ট্বেমান্ স্বজনান্ কৃষ্ণ যুযুৎসূন্ সমবস্থিতান্।
সীদন্তি মম গাত্রাণি মুখঞ্চ পরিশুষ্যতি॥২৮॥
বেপথুশ্চ শরীরে মে রোমহর্ষশ্চ জায়তে।
গাণ্ডীবং স্রংসতে হস্তাৎ ত্বক্ চৈব পরিদহ্যতে॥২৯॥“হে কৃষ্ণ, এই সকল স্বজনকে যুদ্ধার্থে অবস্থিত দেখিয়া আমার দেহের অঙ্গ সকল অবসন্ন হইতেছে, মুখ শুকাইয়া যাইতেছে,
অর্জ্জুন প্রথম তাঁহার বিষাদের বর্ণনা করিলেন। স্নেহ ও কৃপার অকস্মাৎ বিদ্রোহে মহাবীর অর্জ্জুন অভিভূত ও পরাস্ত, তাঁহার শরীরের সমস্ত বল এক মুহূর্ত্তে শুকাইয়া গিয়াছে, অঙ্গ সকল অবসন্ন, দাঁড়াইবার শক্তিও নাই, বলবানের হস্ত গাণ্ডীব ধারণে অসমর্থ, শোকের উত্তাপে জ্বরের লক্ষণ ব্যক্ত, শরীরের দৌর্ব্বল্য হইয়াছে, ত্বক্ যেন অগ্নিতে দগ্ধ হইতেছে, মুখ ভিতরে শুকাইয়া গিয়াছে, সমস্ত শরীর তীব্রভাবে কম্পমান, মন যেন সেই আক্রমণে ঘুরিতেছে। এই ভাবের বর্ণনা পড়িয়া প্রথম কবির তেজস্বিনী কল্পনার অতিরিক্ত বিকাশ বলিয়া কেবল সেই কবিত্বসৌন্দর্য্য ভোগ করিয়া ক্ষান্ত হই; কিন্তু যদি সূক্ষ্মবিচারে নিরীক্ষণ করি, তখন এই বর্ণনার একটী গূঢ় অর্থ মনে উদয় হয়। অর্জ্জুন পূর্ব্বেও কুরুদের সহিত যুদ্ধ করিয়াছেন, অথচ এইরূপ ভাব কখনও হয় নাই, এখন শ্রীকৃষ্ণের ইচ্ছায় হঠাৎ এই আন্তরিক উৎপাত হইয়াছে। মনুষ্যজাতির অনেক অতিপ্রবল বৃত্তি ক্ষত্রিয় শিক্ষা ও উচ্চ আকাঙ্ক্ষা দ্বারা পরাভূত ও আবদ্ধ হইয়া অর্জ্জুনের হৃদয়তলে গুপ্তভাবে রহিয়াছে। নিগ্রহ দ্বারা চিত্তশুদ্ধি হয় না, বিবেক ও বিশুদ্ধ বুদ্ধির সাহায্যে সংযমে চিত্তশুদ্ধি হয়। নিগৃহীত বৃত্তি ও ভাবসকল হয় এই জন্মে, নহে পরজন্মে একদিন চিত্ত হইতে উঠিয়া বুদ্ধিকে আক্রমণ করে এবং জয় করিয়া সমস্ত কর্ম্ম স্ববিকাশের অনুকূল পথে চালায়। এই হেতু, যে এই জন্মে দয়াবান, সে অন্য জন্মে নিষ্ঠুর হয়, যে এই জন্মে কামী ও দুশ্চরিত্র, সে অন্য জন্মে সাধু ও পবিত্রচেতা হয়। নিগ্রহ না করিয়া বিবেক ও বিশুদ্ধ বুদ্ধির সাহায্যে বৃত্তিগুলি প্রত্যাখ্যান করিয়া চিত্ত পরিষ্কার করিতে হয়। ইহাকেই সংযম বলে। জ্ঞানের প্রভাবে তমোভাবের অপনোদন না হইলে সংযম অসম্ভব। সেইজন্য শ্রীকৃষ্ণ অর্জ্জুনের অজ্ঞান দূর করিয়া সুপ্ত বিবেক জাগাইয়া চিত্তশোধন করিতে ইচ্ছুক। কিন্তু পরিহার্য্য বৃত্তিসকল চিত্ত হইতে উত্তোলনপূর্ব্বক বুদ্ধির সম্মুখে
