Sanskrit
कृपया परयाऽऽविष्टो विषीदन्निदमब्रवीत् । दृष्ट्वेमं स्वजनं कृष्ण युयुत्सुं समुपस्थितम् ॥
kṛpayā parayāviṣṭo viṣīdann idam abravīt dṛṣṭvemaṃ svajanaṃ kṛṣṇa yuyutsuṃ samupasthitam
Translation
Deeply moved to pity, thus uttered in sadness: Arjuna said: Seeing these my kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed, eager to fight,
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Arjuna speaks again, and the change in tone from verses 22–23 is total: the confident warrior calling Duryodhana “evil-minded” is gone, replaced by someone “deeply moved to pity.” He no longer calls the people across the field his enemies — the word now is “my kinsmen” (svajanam). Verses 29–30 describe what that recognition does to his body before he manages to say anything more.
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Word by word
- kṛpayā parayāviṣṭoकृपया परयाविष्टो
- overcome by deep compassion
- viṣīdannविषीदन्न्
- sinking into despair
- idam abravītइदं अब्रवीत्
- said this
- dṛṣṭvemaṃदृष्ट्वेमं
- seeing this
- svajanaṃस्वजनं
- my own people
- kṛṣṇaकृष्ण
- O Krishna
- yuyutsuṃयुयुत्सुं
- eager to fight
- samupasthitamसमुपस्थितं
- drawn up before me
Commentary
Site Commentary
The register shift is grammatical as much as emotional: Arjuna’s words back in verses 21–23 were a command — drive the chariot here — while this speech opens in confession, a first-person report of his own state. He goes from directing Krishna’s actions to disclosing his own; the chariot has stopped moving, and now it’s Arjuna’s interior that’s in motion.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Site Commentary — Second Reading
Kṛpā — the compassion that “invades” Arjuna here — is the same register of feeling that shows up whenever an abstract category suddenly resolves into individual faces: a manager who approved a headcount cut on a spreadsheet freezes the first time she has to say the names out loud. The verse isn’t describing a uniquely spiritual crisis; it’s describing what happens the moment a label like “enemy” collapses back into the specific people it was standing in for. That collapse is disorienting precisely because it’s correct — the label was always a simplification, and reality reasserting itself feels like grief because something false has to be given up first.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- Notice when you shift from directing what's happening around you to actually disclosing what's happening inside you — that shift, from command to confession, is often the first honest move in facing something hard.
Professional
- When you catch yourself only ever giving instructions in a difficult meeting, try switching registers and naming your own uncertainty directly — disclosure often unlocks a more honest conversation than another directive would.
Family & Social
- If you've been managing a family situation by giving directions, try pausing to say instead what you're actually feeling about it — confession, not more instruction, is often what the moment is asking for.
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