2.3 Shake it off and stand up Krishna speaks
क्लैब्यं मा स्म गमः पार्थ नैतत्त्वय्युपपद्यते
क्षुद्रं हृदयदौर्बल्यं त्यक्त्वोत्तिष्ठ परन्तप
klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ pārtha naitat tvayyupapadyate
kṣhudraṁ hṛidaya-daurbalyaṁ tyaktvottiṣhṭha parantapa
Do not give in to this unmanliness, son of Pritha. It does not suit you. Shake off this small weakness of heart and stand up.
Explanation
Krishna's opening move is not comfort.
It is an accusation of klaibya — unmanliness, impotence — followed by an order: stand up.
Modern readers flinch, and it is worth staying with rather than excusing. Whatever the Gita becomes later, it begins by refusing to treat this as a position to be negotiated with.
Going further
Word by word
- klaibyam
- unmanliness
- mā sma
- do not
- gamaḥ
- yield to
- pārtha
- Arjun, the son of Pritha
- na
- not
- etat
- this
- tvayi
- to you
- upapadyate
- befitting
- kṣhudram
- petty
- hṛidaya
- heart
- daurbalyam
- weakness
- tyaktvā
- giving up
- uttiṣhṭha
- arise
- param-tapa
- conqueror of enemies
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Krishna's opening move is not comfort. It is an accusation of klaibya — unmanliness, impotence — followed by an order to stand up.
Modern readers often find this jarring, and it is worth not smoothing it over. The Gita begins its answer by refusing the premise that Arjuna's collapse is a moral insight. It calls it a weakness of heart, and a small one. Seventeen chapters of argument follow; this is the only place the tone is contemptuous.