Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1, Verse 27 (BG 1.27) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

# BG 1.27 — Translation of Meaning When Lord Sri Krishna displayed the armies in this manner, Arjuna beheld his kinsmen and relatives arrayed on the opposing side—his brothers, cousins, teachers, grandfathers, and all other familiar and dear ones. Yet he also perceived similar beloved and intimate relations within his own army. Witnessing this sight, perhaps for the first time, Arjuna grasped the terrible and sorrowful consequences of a family conflict, a realization that shook him to his very core. As a man of action and a warrior, he had perhaps never contemplated until now the extent to which society would be called upon to sacrifice in order to fulfill his ambitions and avenge the injustices of Duryodhana. Whatever the cause, it is evident that upon seeing this spectacle, his heart became flooded with compassion and despair. Yet this compassion of the moment was not genuine. Had his feelings of compassion and sorrow been authentic and natural, as they were in Gautama Buddha, he would have conducted himself differently long before the battle commenced. Sanjaya's designation of Arjuna's state as compassion is therefore inappropriate. It is the common nature of human beings to attribute their weaknesses to divine virtues in order to attain greatness—just as a wealthy person who builds a temple in his own name is called charitable, though his hidden desire is merely to immortalize his name. Similarly here, Arjuna's despair arose from the complete collapse of his mental discipline, which was mistakenly called compassion. Arjuna's mind harbored a long succession of suppressed emotions, actively seeking an opportunity to manifest themselves with force. At this moment, Arjuna's mind and intellect had become separated from one another, for believing himself to be the greatest warrior, he harbored an intense eagerness to triumph in battle. Due to these long-suppressed emotions and his present anxiety for victory, his discriminative wisdom became clouded. In the verses that follow in this chapter, Arjuna begins to behave like a person suffering from mental imbalance. The first chapter of the Gita attempts to trace the history of the disease afflicting one stricken with what may be called Arjuna's malady. As I have said before, the sovereign remedy for this self-destructive Arjuna's malady is the treatment administered by Sri Krishna.