Shloka 47
Karma-Yoga, Yajña-Cakra, and the Governance of Desire (कर्मयोग–यज्ञचक्र–कामनिग्रह)
संजय उवाच एवमुकक््त्वार्जुन: संख्ये रथोपस्थ उपाविशत् | विसृज्य सशरं चापं शोकसंविग्नमानस:,संजय बोले--रणभूमिमें शोकसे उद्विग्न मनवाला अर्जुन इस प्रकार कहकर, बाणसहित धनुषको त्यागकर रथके पिछले भागमें बैठ गया
sañjaya uvāca evam uktvā arjunaḥ saṅkhye rathopasthe upāviśat | visṛjya saśaraṃ cāpaṃ śokasaṃvignamānasaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Having spoken thus on the battlefield, Arjuna—his mind shaken by grief—cast aside his bow together with the arrows and sat down on the chariot-seat. The warrior’s collapse signals a moral crisis: the demands of war confront his sense of kinship and righteousness, and his refusal to act becomes the immediate ethical problem that will call forth instruction on duty and discernment.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse itself presents the ethical turning-point: Arjuna’s grief overwhelms his warrior resolve, leading him to abandon his weapon and sit down. This collapse frames the central problem of dharma in war—how to act rightly when duty conflicts with compassion and personal bonds—setting the stage for subsequent instruction on disciplined action and discernment.
After speaking his lament, Arjuna, distressed by sorrow, throws down his bow along with the arrows and sits on the chariot-seat in the midst of the battlefield. Sañjaya narrates this visible sign of Arjuna’s refusal to fight at that moment.