Understand

Do your choices matter, or is the outcome already set?

Krishna says Arjuna's enemies are already slain — and also that he must fight.

One reading

The result is fixed: nature will compel you, and what is destined happens with or without your consent.

BG 11.32 — Time am I, laying desolate the world, Made manifest on earth to slay mankind! Not one of all these warriors ranged for strife Escapeth death; thou shalt alone survive. read →
BG 11.33 — Therefore stand up! win for thyself renown, Conquer thy foes, enjoy the wealth filled realm, By Me they are already overcome, Be thou the outward cause, left-handed one. read →
BG 18.59 — Entrenched in egoism, thou thinkest, "I will not fight;" to no purpose thy determination; nature will constrain thee. read →

The tension

Effort still sets your direction — lift yourself by yourself; the mind is trained by practice.

BG 6.5 — Let him raise the self by the Self and not let the self become depressed; for verily is the Self the friend of the self, and also the Self the self's enemy; read →
BG 6.35 — Without doubt, O mighty-armed, the mind is hard to curb and restless; but it may be curbed by constant practice and by dispassion. read →
BG 2.47 — Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached. read →

My reading

The "already slain" vision (11.32–33) is shown to Arjuna to break his sense of being the lone hinge of history, not to excuse him. The working position is compatibilist: large outcomes may be out of your hands, but the one thing fully in them — whether you meet the moment from clarity or from collapse — is exactly what 6.5 puts on you.