Chapter 2, Verse 36
avācya vādāṁśca bahūn
vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ
nindantas tava sāmarthyaṁ
tato duḥkhataraṁ nu kim
Many unseemly words will be spoken by your enemies, slandering your strength; what is worse grief than that?
You see, Krishna is using the feeling of guilt, the knife, and putting it inside again. He says, “If you run away from your enemies, the infamy of the public scandal will cause acute distress. It will be terrible. Duryodhana and the other Kauravas will use this; they will enjoy this. They will ridicule you and not only you – they will also ridicule your whole family. They will say to your other brothers, ‘Your brother, Arjuna, ran away.’ They will start calling your family, even your mother, many names. They will speak words of reproach and defame you. If you lose fame, Arjuna, how would you take this?”
You see, the Pandavas also cared very much about their fame. Krishna says, “This will bring great suffering to you, Arjuna. Whereas these enemies who you are concerned about will be joyfully happy; they will plot and use this to do more mischief. They will use it for their own purpose. They will say that Arjuna was not a warrior.” Krishna reminds Arjuna, “They will even dishonour your holy bow. They will say many disrespectful things about it. How could you bear that? If they talk badly about your Gandiva, could you bear this? You know how powerful your Gandiva is! How strong it is! You will not be able to bear this disrespect to your Gandiva.” Pointing to his bow, He says, “There is nothing worse than running away. So look Arjuna, open your eyes! See that when you accept what God is giving you to do, it will bring you great honour to you. But the opposite of that, what will it be?”
Bhagavad Gita
