Now, here is a good proposal from the worldly point of view that Arjuna does not want to fight, and Kṛṣṇa is not encouraging him. Now, what is the point? Somebody may say that "Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, why He is encouraging in the matter of fighting?" People, at the present moment, when there is a question of war, people want to stop that war. At the present moment, the movement is going on between all nations that they do not want war. But here we see that Kṛṣṇa is not discouraging war. We have to mark this point. He is not discouraging war, but He is, rather, advocating, inducing Arjuna that "No, no, no, this is not befitting your position. You must fight, must fight."
So here is a point, that sometimes we may do something which is approved by the general public, but it may not be approved by the supreme authority. Superficially it may appear very appealing to the sentiment of the public, but factually such thing may not be correct, may not be correct. If we accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and "Why He was inducing Arjuna to fight?" It does not mean that He was inducing Arjuna to do something wrong. But from worldly point of view, Arjuna was a very pious man and he was declining to fight, not to kill his kinsmen, not to kill his friends. This... This is a very important point. So he argued, "No, no, if I fight, my people will die, and their wives will become widow, and they will be adulterated, and then, by adulteration, unwanted population will increase, and who will offer śrāddha?" Śrāddha... There is a ceremony of śrāddha according to Hindu scripture. I do not know whether you have in your Christian religion, but according to Hindu, a dead body is offered some respect every year. Just like death anniversary observed, similarly, in the family, the descendants, they offer some foodstuff after some religious ceremony. That is called śrāddha. And it is believed that that offering goes to the dead forefathers. So that is a family religious ceremony. So Arjuna said that "These people will die. Who will offer that ablution to the forefathers?" So from ordinary point of view, from the point of view of a family man, he argued with Kṛṣṇa in so many ways. And after, at the end, he decided that "I cannot fight. I cannot fight." Then Kṛṣṇa tried to induce him, and he said that "Yes, whatever You are saying, that I am a kṣatriya and I am not doing my duty, this is all right, but My mind is perplexed." So he was at the same time conscious that Śrī Kṛṣṇa only can make a solution of this perplexity. So he said,
- kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ
- pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ
- yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me
- śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam
- (BG 2.7)
Kārpaṇya-doṣa. Kārpaṇya-doṣa means a miserly man, miserly man. He was conscious of the fact that he was a great hero, he was a great fighter, and, at the same time, the enemies were there. So his actual duty was to fight with the enemy. They were offering fight. For a kṣatriya there are some obligations. If somebody challenges that "I want to fight with you," a kṣatriya cannot deny. If somebody challenges, "Yes, I want to bet with you, gambling," a kṣatriya cannot deny. And for that reason, the Pāṇḍavas lost their kingdom. The other side, his cousins, offered them, that "All right, let us come to betting." So betting, the bid was they offered the kingdom. "Now, if you, if you," I mean to say, "defeated, if you are defeated, then you lose your kingdom." So they lost their kingdom. Then the next, next offer was that "If you are defeated, you lost your wife." So they lost their wife. And similarly, they were put: "Now, this time, if you are defeated, you have to go to the forest for twelve years." So there was a great plan behind them, and the Pāṇḍavas were defeated in so many ways, and they were harassed, embarrassed for not less than twenty years. And now they were to fight, face to face. Now he is not prepared to fight. That means he has become miserly, mean he is deviating from his duty. Now. So he is conscious that "Practically, I am deviating from my duty." Kārpaṇya-doṣa: "This is my miserly behavior." Doṣa. Doṣa means "It is a fault on my part. I should not have deviated from this fighting, but my sentiment does not allow me to fight with my kinsmen." So here is a perplexity. So kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ, dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ: (BG 2.7) "Not only I am miserly, but I am deviating from my duty, dharma." Dharma. This dharma means, according to different position... Just like brāhmaṇa, the intellectual society; the kṣatriyas, the administrator society; the vaiśyas, the mercantile society; and the śūdras. Śūdras means the laborer class. So these four divisions are always. Now you can name in a different way. That doesn't matter. But in every society and for all time these divisions are there. So according to Vedic system, this system is observed by generation. So he was a kṣatriya. Now, kṣatriya's duty was to fight with the enemy, and he was not executing that, I mean to say, injunction. Therefore, he is conscious that dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ: (BG 2.7) "Oh, I am deviating from my religion also. It is the duty of kṣatriya. No. So I am now perplexed." So yac chreyaḥ syān niścitam: "Now You should kindly, definitely say." Now, here is a position: "I do not understand what is to be done. You kindly..." Yac chreyaḥ syān niścitam. Niścitam means definitely what is right. Brūhi tan me. Now Kṛṣṇa can say, "Well, I have already saying you that you should fight, but you are not carrying out the order." So he says that śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam (BG 2.7). So he accepted that "All right, whatever arguments we have done so far, let us forget that. Now I accept You as my spiritual master, not my friend."