Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1, Verse 28

Chapter 1 – Arjuna Vishada Yoga · Speaker: Arjuna

Sanskrit verse

कृपया परयाविष्टो विषीदन्निदमब्रवीत् ।
अर्जुन उवाच ।
दृष्ट्वेमं स्वजनं कृष्ण युयुत्सुं समुपस्थितम् ॥

Transliteration

kṛpayā parayāviṣṭo viṣīdannidamabravīt .
arjuna uvāca .
dṛṣṭvemaṃ svajanaṃ kṛṣṇa yuyutsuṃ samupasthitam ॥

Meaning

(Arjuna,) overcome with deep compassion, spoke in sorrow. Arjuna said: O Krishna, seeing these my own kinsmen standing before me, eager to fight,

Word meanings

कृपया – with compassion, pity
परया – intense
आविष्टः – overcome, possessed
विषीदन् – grieving, despondent
इदम् – this
अब्रवीत् – spoke
दृष्ट्वा – seeing
इमम् – these
स्वजनम् – one's own people
कृष्ण – O Krishna
युयुत्सुम् – eager to fight
समुपस्थितम् – present before me

Anvaya (word order)

(सः) परया कृपया आविष्टः विषीदन् इदम् अब्रवीत् । अर्जुनः उवाच — कृष्ण, युयुत्सुं समुपस्थितम् इमं स्वजनं दृष्ट्वा —

Explanation

This verse marks the moment where Arjuna's mood changes. Until now he has been the confident warrior who asked Krishna to place his chariot between the two armies so that he could look at those who stood ready to fight. Now he has looked, and he sees not enemies but his own people. The text says that he was "overcome by deep compassion", kripaya parayavishtah, and speaking in sorrow, vishidann, he said: "Seeing these my kinsmen, O Krishna, standing arrayed and eager to fight..."

It is worth noticing that the word used for his feeling is kripa, compassion or tenderness. This is not weakness in the ordinary sense. He is moved by something genuinely human: the thought that he will have to kill teachers, uncles, cousins and friends. The tradition does not scorn this softness; the Gita will later praise compassion for all beings as a mark of the devotee (12.13). The trouble, as the next chapters show, is that his compassion has become mixed with attachment and confusion about duty, so that it paralyses him.

Shankara reads the sentence as showing that Arjuna's mind was overpowered by affection arising from the sense of "mine" toward his relatives, which caused his delusion about what to do; this is the root of samsara, and is the very thing the Gita seeks to remove. Ramanuja says that the Lord, who knew Arjuna's heart, was waiting for him to be disturbed so that He could give the teaching. Madhva similarly notes that Arjuna's feeling is the occasion for the Lord's instruction rather than a real fault.

There is an instructive picture of how an inner crisis begins. Often the problem seems at first like a mere surface event: a decision at work, a family dispute, a moral choice. Then we look more closely and see the faces of those who will be affected, and the clarity we had dissolves. The Gita does not tell Arjuna to suppress what he feels; it takes him seriously. It brings him, step by step, to a deeper understanding in which compassion and duty are no longer enemies.

The first words, "drishtvemam sva-janam", seeing these my own people, carry the seed of the next three verses where Arjuna describes the symptoms of his distress: weak limbs, dry mouth, trembling body, bristling hair. We should read this as a very honest psychological portrait. Compare this with 2.1, where Krishna sees Arjuna with tears in his eyes, and with 2.7, where Arjuna himself confesses that his nature is overcome by weakness and asks to be taught as a disciple.

Context

In verses 26-27 Arjuna saw his kinsmen in both armies. Here his grief-stricken speech begins, continuing to the end of the chapter (verse 46). In the next verse he describes the effect of this distress on his body.

Life lesson

Not all compassion is a virtue; a pity limited to 'one's own' that turns us away from duty is attachment. Yet if deep sorrow turns us towards the right guide, it can become the beginning of transformation.

Key terms

Kripa: compassion; here pity born of attachment
Vishada: deep grief and dejection that saps the will to act
Svajana: one's own people, kinsmen
Arjuna Vishada Yoga: title of the first chapter: the yoga of Arjuna's despair