Arjuna Vishada Yoga
The Gita opens on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where the blind king Dhritarashtra asks his charioteer Sanjaya to describe the scene — Sanjaya, gifted with a kind of far-sight for the occasion, narrates everything that follows. Arjuna asks Krishna, his charioteer and friend, to drive his chariot between the two assembled armies so he can see who has come to fight. Surveying the ranks, Arjuna recognizes grandfathers, teachers, uncles, cousins and friends arrayed on both sides, ready to kill or be killed for a kingdom. Overwhelmed with grief and horror at the prospect of killing his own kin, his body trembling and his mind reeling, he declares he would rather be killed unresisting than commit such a sin. The chapter ends with Arjuna casting aside his bow and arrows and sinking down in his chariot, unwilling to fight — setting up the crisis that the rest of the Gita will address.
“Dhritarashtra said: Tell me, Sanjaya, what did my sons and the sons of Pandu do when they gathered on the sacred field of Kurukshetra, eager for battle?”
The Gita's opening line — the whole poem is framed as Sanjaya's narration to the blind king.
“Arjuna said: Seeing my own kinsmen here, Krishna, arrayed and eager to fight, my limbs give way and my mouth goes dry.”
“A tremor runs through my body and my hair stands on end; the bow Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin burns.”
“I see no good in killing my own kinsmen in battle, Krishna. I desire neither victory, nor kingdom, nor pleasures.”
“I do not wish to kill them, even though they would kill me, Krishna — not for sovereignty over all three worlds, how much less for this earth alone.”
“It would be better for me if the sons of Dhritarashtra, weapons in hand, killed me in battle, unarmed and unresisting.”
“Speaking thus on the battlefield, Arjuna sank down onto the seat of his chariot, casting aside his bow and arrows, his mind overcome with grief.”
The chapter's closing image — Arjuna's collapse is the crisis that prompts the rest of the Gita's teaching.
Chapter summaries composed for MyBrahman; verse translations from the public-domain Kashinath Trimbak Telang translation (1882, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 8) where directly checkable, and/or widely-attested traditional renderings of famous verses, cited by standard chapter.verse numbering.