1.46 Better that they kill me Arjuna speaks
यदि मामप्रतीकारमशस्त्रं शस्त्रपाणयः
धार्तराष्ट्रा रणे हन्युस्तन्मे क्षेमतरं भवेत्
yadi mām apratīkāram aśhastraṁ śhastra-pāṇayaḥ
dhārtarāṣhṭrā raṇe hanyus tan me kṣhemataraṁ bhavet
If Dhritarashtra's sons, weapons in hand, were to kill me here unresisting and unarmed, that would be better for me.
Explanation
Better that they kill me.
The last thing he says before sitting down: better to be killed unarmed and unresisting.
Read plainly, this is a man preferring death to the act in front of him — and it is not posturing. Everything from 1.28 onward has been leading here, which is why chapter 2 opens not with an answer but with Krishna refusing this.
Going further
Word by word
- yadi
- if
- mām
- me
- apratīkāram
- unresisting
- aśhastram
- unarmed
- śhastra-pāṇayaḥ
- those with weapons in hand
- dhārtarāṣhṭrāḥ
- the sons of Dhritarashtra
- raṇe
- on the battlefield
- hanyuḥ
- shall kill
- tat
- that
- me
- to me
- kṣhema-taram
- better
- bhavet
- would be
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The last thing he says before he sits down: better that they kill me, unarmed and not resisting.
Read plainly, this is a man preferring death to the act required of him. The chapter is titled despondency, and it earns the word. Nothing in the next seventeen chapters works unless this verse is taken at face value first.