1.30 The bow slips from his hand Arjuna speaks
गाण्डीवं स्रंसते हस्तात्त्वक्चैव परिदह्यते
न च शक्नोम्यवस्थातुं भ्रमतीव च मे मनः
gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt tvak chaiva paridahyate
na cha śhaknomy avasthātuṁ bhramatīva cha me manaḥ
Gandiva slips from my hand, my skin burns, I cannot stand, and my mind reels.
Explanation
And the bow slips out of his hand.
Read the three verses together as one clinical picture: legs failing, dry mouth, trembling, hair on end, the weapon slipping, skin burning, unable to stand, mind reeling.
Gandiva is a divine weapon and he cannot hold it. The Gita opens with the greatest archer in the world having a panic attack, described in full.
Going further
Word by word
- gāṇḍīvam
- Arjun’s bow
- sraṁsate
- is slipping
- hastāt
- from (my) hand
- tvak
- skin
- cha
- and
- eva
- indeed
- paridahyate
- is burning all over
- na
- not
- cha
- and
- śhaknomi
- am able
- avasthātum
- remain steady
- bhramati iva
- whirling like
- cha
- and
- me
- my
- manaḥ
- mind
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Read the last three verses again as a symptom list: legs failing, dry mouth, trembling, hair standing up, the weapon slipping, skin burning, unable to stand, mind spinning. This is a clinical description of a panic response, written down roughly two thousand years ago, in the mouth of a hero.
It matters that the text does this. It does not open with a doctrine. It opens with a body in distress, described so precisely that anyone who has felt it recognises it immediately.