1.31 I foresee nothing good Arjuna speaks
निमित्तानि च पश्यामि विपरीतानि केशव
न च श्रेयोऽनुपश्यामि हत्वा स्वजनमाहवे
nimittāni cha paśhyāmi viparītāni keśhava
na cha śhreyo ’nupaśhyāmi hatvā sva-janam āhave
And I see the omens are against us, Krishna. I foresee nothing good in killing my own people in battle.
Explanation
He starts to reason, and the reasoning is bad.
The omens are against us; I foresee nothing good in killing my own people.
This is the first of many arguments he will produce, and it is the weakest — an appeal to signs. What is happening is that a state is looking for reasons, and over sixteen verses it finds better ones.
Word by word
- nimittāni
- omens
- cha
- and
- paśhyāmi
- I see
- viparītāni
- misfortune
- keśhava
- Shree Krishna, killer of the Keshi demon
- na
- not
- cha
- also
- śhreyaḥ
- good
- anupaśhyāmi
- I foresee
- hatvā
- from killing
- sva-janam
- kinsmen
- āhave
- in battle
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