Nara-nārāyaṇa: I am yet not so clear to understand why it is so important to Arjuna, or that Kṛṣṇa should say to Arjuna that it is so important, the reputation. Because in Arjuna's own heart he knows that he is being kind, or that he is in confusion because of his kindness. Does this make a difference, the opinion that one's fellow kṣatriya would have of him?
Prabhupāda: Arjuna was reputed as a great warrior. So he should remain a great warrior. A warrior's business is not to stop fighting on the plea of becoming kind. If you have gone to the war field and if you practice nonviolence there, this is useless. Why should you go?
There is a Bengali proverb that nāste base ghomaṭā, that . . . in India, the girls, they cover their head. That is the system of married girl's shyness. So it is said that one girl is on the stage for dancing. Now while she is to dance, she's covering the head. What is the use of covering the head? You have come to dance, you dance. Similarly, in the war field, you have gone there to fight. Where is the question of becoming nonviolent?
So things should be done according to the time and atmosphere. In the war field, there is no question of nonviolence. That is, the war is arranged for committing violence. Where is the question of preaching there nonviolence?
Devotee (3): I don't know how exactly to word this. It seems like . . . I didn't quite understand the explanation, but it seems that although the battlefield was arranged for this war, there was almost a test for his principles and for him to renounce his place in the kṣatriya class. This is where I get confused in the Gītā. It seems like this is a very noble thing for him to renounce his place in the caste. I'm not clear here.
Prabhupāda: Renounce what?
Devotee (3): To renounce his place as a warrior and to go off into the woods and be a mendicant or whatever he wanted to do.
Prabhupāda: Who said?
Devotee (3): Arjuna.
Prabhupāda: So that is his cowardice. That is being condemned by Kṛṣṇa that, "It is not your business to give up fighting and go away from the war field and go to the forest for meditation. It is not your business."