What was Krishna's advice to Arjuna? The first decision brief
The short answer
Krishna's advice to Arjuna, in one line: see the situation as it is, do the duty that is yours, and act without craving the result. After 18 chapters of reasons, he hands the choice back to Arjuna, and Arjuna decides.
The dilemma, as a decision
The facts. Two armies face each other at Kurukshetra. Arjuna, the finest archer on his side, asks Krishna, his charioteer, to drive between them. In the other army he sees his teachers, his great-uncle and his cousins. The war is over a kingdom he and his brothers were cheated of.
The options. Fight, and kill the people he grew up revering. Or walk away, abandon his duty as a warrior, and leave the wrong standing.
The cost. Arjuna puts down his bow and sinks into the chariot seat. He can see no option without a cost:
न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो यद्वा जयेम यदि वा नो जयेयुः। यानेव हत्वा न जिजीविषामस्तेऽवस्थिताः प्रमुखे धार्तराष्ट्राः।।2.6।।
Nor know I which for us be the better, that we conquer them or they conquer us—these, whom having slain we should not care to live, even these arrayed against us, the sons of Dhritarâshtra.
Then he asks for a decision:
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसंमूढचेताः। यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम्।।2.7।।
My heart is weighed down with the vice of faintness; my mind is confused as to duty. I ask thee which may be the better—that tell me decisively. I am thy disciple, suppliant to Thee; teach me.
Read as a decision, that is the brief every KarmaLens reading answers: a mind confused about duty, asking which way is better, said decisively.
What Krishna did first
Krishna did not comfort Arjuna, and he did not hand down a rule. He questioned him, and corrected the facts Arjuna had wrong: what dies in a war and what does not, what grief is for, what his role actually asks of him. The call came only after the facts were straight.
The call
When it came, the call was plain: do your own duty, and not someone else's.
श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्। स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेयः परधर्मो भयावहः।।3.35।।
Better one's own duty, though destitute of merit, than the duty of another, well discharged. Better death in the discharge of one's own duty; the duty of another is full of danger.
For Arjuna, a warrior in a just cause, his own duty was the fight in front of him; living on alms, as he had proposed, would have been the duty of another. For you, it is the role you actually hold, which the Gita calls svadharma. And Krishna's way to carry it out is 2.47: act fully, and let go of the result.
The first step, and the choice handed back
Krishna's first instruction, and one he repeats, is physical and immediate: stand up. Then, at the end of the teaching, he gives Arjuna everything he has said and steps back:
इति ते ज्ञानमाख्यातं गुह्याद्गुह्यतरं मया।विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु।।18.63।।
Thus hath wisdom, more secret than secrecy itself, been declared unto thee by Me; having reflected on it fully, then act thou as thou listest.
The call is made plainly, and the choice stays with the one who has to live it. Krishna's last words to him are questions:
कच्चिदेतच्छ्रुतं पार्थ त्वयैकाग्रेण चेतसा।कच्चिदज्ञानसंमोहः प्रनष्टस्ते धनञ्जय।।18.72।।
Hath this been heard, O son of Prithâ, with one-pointed mind? Has thy delusion, caused by unwisdom, been destroyed, O Dhananjaya?
The decision
नष्टो मोहः स्मृतिर्लब्धा त्वत्प्रसादान्मयाच्युत।स्थितोऽस्मि गतसन्देहः करिष्ये वचनं तव।।18.73।।
Destroyed is my delusion. I have gained knowledge through Thy grace, O Immutable one. I am firm, my doubts have fled away. I will do according to Thy word.
Doubt gone, a decision made, an action ahead. From 2.7 to 18.73 is the whole arc of a decision: confusion, the facts, a call, and a person who chooses to act.
Why it is the model for every reading
A KarmaLens reading follows the same arc:
- You write your dilemma as it is, doubts included, the way Arjuna said his.
- Sarathi asks for the facts that decide it, as Krishna straightened Arjuna's facts first.
- The options are weighed on 8 lenses: duty, truth, non-harm, detachment, clean intent, restraint, welfare of all and discernment.
- One call, said plainly, with every option's cost beside it, and a verse when one fits.
- The first step, with the exact first sentence to say. It stays open until you mark it done, and taking it is your choice, as 18.63 leaves it to Arjuna.
The name is the same too. Krishna was Arjuna's sarathi, his charioteer, who stayed beside him through the whole war. Sarathi is the voice that reads your dilemma. More of what Krishna taught, verse by verse, is in Bhagavad Gita teachings for life. For today's versions of Arjuna's question, see real ethical dilemmas, decided.
Decide yours
Your Kurukshetra is smaller and closer: a family table, an offer letter, a message you have not sent. Write it the way Arjuna said his, as it is. KarmaLens asks, weighs, and makes one call, with the first step ready today.
Free, private, about two minutes.