Chapter 2, Verse 9
sañjaya uvāca
evam uktvā hṛṣīkeśaṁ
guḍakeśaḥ paraṅtapa
na yotsya iti govindam
uktvā tūṣṇīṁ babhūva ha
Sanjaya says: Gudakesha (Arjuna), terror of his foes, having thus spoken to Krishna, then says to Krishna, “Govinda, I will not fight!” and becomes silent.
Here Arjuna makes his decision, and says, “I’m not ready to fight! I’m happy with my normal, mundane life. I don’t want anything else. I don’t want to go deeply into spirituality. I don’t want to discover my true Self. I’m happy living life; waking up in the morning; having my breakfast; going to work; coming back from work; enjoying the TV and sleeping.” Again, next day the same routine. “Then I look forward to the weekend: I will go to the pub, I will drink; I will lose my mind; I won’t even know what happened. I will go completely into delusion; then I will come back home,” – if you come back home, or maybe you will sleep on the road; or wake up in somebody else’s bed or somewhere else, not even knowing what has happened. Sunday, I will relax; Monday, the same routine – and, “I’m happy with that.” This is the delusion in the world. Who wants to change when people have created their own reality of happiness? No one wants to change.
So here, Arjuna says, “I don’t want to fight! I want to listen to you.” That’s why he becomes silent. He is praying to the Lord. Sanjaya says to the king, “After taking refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, after surrendering to the Lotus Feet of the Lord, Arjuna waits for His guidance and instruction. And he becomes silent.” This is what Krishna has been waiting for, that Arjuna silence himself a bit and be ready to listen.
Here Sanjaya refers to Krishna as Govinda. The truth about God is known only through the Vedas. Krishna is Govinda, the Lord of the Vedas. He is the incarnation of the Vedas, the living Vedas. It is through the study of the Vedas that He is to be known. The study of the Vedas has only one aim: to attain the Grace of Narayana Krishna.
Arjuna has become silent. He has made himself ready. Sanjaya is excited inside and is eagerly waiting to see what will happen next. He says, “Okay, now Arjuna is in silence after expressing himself and going through all this delusion.” Sanjaya himself is getting excited. You know, it’s like when you are watching a nice movie and you’re wondering what will happen next and at that moment they put on a big advertisement and you have to wait. Such is the state of Sanjaya. He has been closely watching this big movie, he sees the climax coming soon and asks, “Ah, what will be next?” He has very deep anticipation; he is waiting for what will come next.
Bhagavad Gita