Chapter 1 · Verse 37·Spoken by Arjuna
तस्मान्नार्हा वयं हन्तुं धार्तराष्ट्रान्स्वबान्धवान्। स्वजनं हि कथं हत्वा सुखिनः स्याम माधव
tasmān nārhā vayaṁ hantuṁ dhārtarāṣhṭrān sa-bāndhavān sva-janaṁ hi kathaṁ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava
So it is not right for us to kill the sons of Dhritarashtra, our own kinsmen. How could we be happy after killing our own people, Krishna?
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
Audio from the Gītā Supersite, IIT Kanpur
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Convergence
his verse is Arjuna's conclusion. The word 'therefore' (tasmat) gathers up everything he has said since the army first came into view: the family will be destroyed, its traditions broken, ancestors abandoned, society thrown into confusion. From all of that he now draws the verdict. We are not justified in killing the sons of Dhritarashtra together with their kinsmen. Several commentators simply restate the plain sense: we should not kill our own people, and killing them, how could we ever be happy. The verse turns a list of feared consequences into a moral refusal.
Braided from 6 commentators
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Sant Jñāneśvar · Dhanapati Sūri
The second line carries the real force: 'how could we be happy after killing our own people.' This is not only an argument about right and wrong; it is about joy. Even if victory came, no happiness could grow on ground watered by the blood of one's own family. One commentator sharpens this through the name Arjuna uses, 'Madhava,' read as Lord of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune and prosperity: whatever kingdom and wealth victory might win is wealth meant for kinsmen to enjoy, so with the kinsmen dead the prize itself is emptied of any joy it could give.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Sant Jñāneśvar · Swami Ramsukhdas · Dhanapati Sūri
The Advaita commentators read this verse closely with the one that follows, and they hear in it the opening of a debate. An obvious objection looms: the enemy is engaged in exactly the same killing, and worthy elders like Bhishma stand with them, so how can the act be wrong? Arjuna's answer, which these commentators draw out, is that the enemy's discernment is overpowered by greed (lobha). Because greed has struck their intellect, they simply do not see the fault that lies in destroying a family. Their willingness to fight is therefore no proof that fighting is right; it only shows what greed can hide from a person.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
These commentators treat the verse as the setup for a logical refutation completed in the next verse. The enemy fights only because greed has overpowered his understanding and blinded him to the fault of destroying a family; his engagement proves nothing. One of them presses this into a formal point against a likely defense: someone might argue that since revered elders are engaged in the slaying, it must be righteous conduct rooted in the Veda, and so fitting for everyone. This is set aside by the principle 'because a cause is seen.' Where a plain worldly cause such as greed is visible behind an action, you cannot suppose the action springs from scripture. The elders' participation, having a visible cause, gives no sanction. The thought completes in the next verse: though these others, blinded, do not see the wrong, how could it remain unknown to us who do see it?
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
Bhedabheda
This commentator reads the verse forward into Arjuna's very next thought and states it as a question of clear sight. Addressing Krishna, the sense is: how should it not be understood by us, who plainly see the wrong done by the destruction of a family, that we ought to turn back from this sin? Here Arjuna's refusal is framed not as confusion but as honest moral perception. He sees the wrong; therefore withdrawal is the only sane response.
Śrī Bhāskara
Bhakti
This commentator gives the most emotional reading and adds a dimension the others do not. Arjuna fears not only the loss of kin but the loss of Krishna himself. To wield a weapon in this battle would be the most deadly sin, and through that sin, he feels, he would lose Krishna and have nothing left to call his own; his heart would be torn apart without Krishna at his side. So Arjuna insists it could never happen that he would kill the Kauravas and live on to enjoy the result. The refusal is bound up with his love for the Lord, who is here addressed and clung to.
Sant Jñāneśvar
Modern
This commentator reads the verse as the visible surface of a hidden delusion, and names the inner mechanism. Arjuna gathers all the reasons he has given since the army appeared and concludes that good people like himself cannot engage in so unfitting a work. He even argues from his present grief: if the mere thought that these kinsmen will die causes such anguish, how much worse the sorrow if, falling under anger and greed, he actually slew them. Yet the diagnosis turns back on Arjuna. Because of attachment (mamata), the delusion 'these are my own intimate kinsmen' (moha) has taken hold, and so his eye does not turn to his own warrior's duty. Where there is moha, a person's power of discrimination (viveka) is smothered; and when viveka is smothered, moha grows stronger still; and while moha is strong, clear sight of one's duty cannot arise. The morally confident verse is, on this reading, delusion speaking in the voice of conscience.
Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
Arjuna sounds completely right here, so is his refusal to kill his own family clear-eyed moral wisdom, or is it delusion dressed up as conscience?
Take the worry seriously first: the words really do sound like wisdom, and the commentators do not pretend otherwise. The refusal is dressed in the language of family love and high principle, which is exactly why it is so hard to see through.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Bhāskara
But one commentator names the hidden mechanism. Arjuna's stand rises from attachment (mamata) and the delusion 'these are my own' (moha). Where that delusion is strong, the power of discrimination (viveka) is smothered, and a person cannot see his actual duty; the fog then deepens itself in a loop. On this reading the verse is not wisdom but delusion borrowing the voice of conscience.
Swami Ramsukhdas
The Advaita commentators offer a test that cuts the same way. When a plain worldly cause such as greed or attachment can be seen behind an act or a refusal, you cannot take that act to be grounded in true dharma. They apply this to the enemy, whose readiness to fight only proves what greed can hide; but the same blade turns on Arjuna, whose refusal has a visible cause in his clinging to his own.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Madhusūdana Sarasvatī
So the honest answer is that the refusal is sincere and the moral feeling is real, yet sincerity is not the same as clear sight. The deeper teaching, which the Gita will unfold, is that a choice can feel like conscience and still be attachment in disguise, and the way back to real wisdom is to loosen the grip of 'mine' so that discrimination can see the duty again.
Swami Ramsukhdas · Sant Jñāneśvar
Contemplation
Watch the quiet machinery this verse exposes in yourself. Notice how attachment whispers 'these are mine' and how, the moment it does, your clear seeing of what you actually ought to do grows dim. This is the loop to learn by heart: where clinging is strong, discernment is smothered; and the more discernment is smothered, the stronger the clinging grows. The danger is that this fog can feel exactly like conscience. Arjuna's refusal sounds noble, even compassionate, yet it rises from delusion, not from clear sight of his duty. So when a choice arrives wrapped in the language of 'my people, my own,' pause before trusting it whole. Ask whether you are truly seeing your duty, or only feeling your attachment. Loosening the grip of 'mine,' even a little, is what lets discrimination breathe again and the right path come back into view.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
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