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The Bhagavad Gita1402
“I cannot see whether it would be better for me whether we be the victors
or the defeated, for I should not wish to live after having caused the death
of those arrayed against us—my kinsmen and friends—the sons and people
of Kuru’s king Dhritarashtra, who now confront us in angry battle array. My
compassion weighs down my heart even unto faintness, and my mind reels
confusedly before the problem presented to it. What is Right Action for
me—what is my Duty? O most blessed Krishna, my Lord, decide these
weighty questions for me—tell me what is Right. I, Thy disciple and student,
beg for Thy instruction in this my hour of dire need.
“So confused and dazed am I, that my understanding is confounded by
the dictates of my Duty, and I can discover nothing that will give peace
to the fever of mind which burneth within me, and drieth up my faculties.
Even though I should gain a kingdom on earth, surpassing all other earthly
kingdoms, even as the sun surpasseth the stars—nay, even though I were to
gain dominion over the Hosts of Heaven, my grief would not be assuaged.”
“Nay, nay, I will not fight—I will not fight.”
And, saying these words Arjuna became silent. But Krishna, smiling most
tenderly upon the despondent prince, standing, cast down in mind, in the
midst of the two armies, spake unto him these words:
“Thou grievest for those who need not thy grief, Arjuna, yet thy words
are not those of the foolish, but bear within them the seeds of wisdom. Thy
utterances have a wise sound, but yet express only the outer wisdom, and
fail to show the flower of the inner doctrine of the wise. They are true, and
yet not wholly true—the half-truth is apparent—but the missing half is the
deeper portion.
“The truly wise grieve neither for the dead, nor yet for the living. Just as
the brave man feareth neither Death nor Life, so doth the wise man avoid
grief over either, though the half-wise grieve over either or both, according
to mood and circumstance.