Shloka
एतान्न हन्तुमिच्छामि घ्नतोऽपि मधुसूदन |
अपि त्रैलोक्यराज्यस्य हेतोः किं नु महीकृते ||१-३५||Transliteration
etānna hantumicchāmi ghnato.api madhusūdana .
api trailokyarājyasya hetoḥ kiṃ nu mahīkṛte ||1-35||Translations
Dr.S.Sankaranarayan
1.35. By slaying Dhrtarastra’s sons what joy would be to go us, O Janardana?
Shri Purohit Swami
1.35 I would not kill them, even for three worlds; why then for this poor earth? It matters not if I myself am killed.
Sri Abhinav Gupta
1.35 – 1.44 Nihatya etc. upto anususruma. Sin alone is the agent in the act of slaying these desperadoes. Therefore here the idea is this : These ememies of ours have been slain, i.e., have been take possession of, by sin. Sin would come to us also after slaying them. Sin in this context is the disregard, on account of greed etc., to the injurious conseences like the ruination of the family and the like. That is why Arjuna makes a specific mention of the [ruin of the] family etc., and of its duties in the passage ‘How by slaying my own kinsmen etc’.
The act of slaying, undertaken with an individualizing idea about its result, and with a particularizing idea about the person to be slain, is a great sin. To say this very thing precisely and to indicate the intensity of his own agony, Arjuna says only to himself [see next sloka]:
Sri Ramanuja
1.26 - 1.47 Arjuna said - Sanjaya said Sanjaya continued: The high-minded Arjuna, extremely kind, deeply friendly, and supremely righteous, having brothers like himself, though repeatedly deceived by the treacherous attempts of your people like burning in the lac-house etc., and therefore fit to be killed by him with the help of the Supreme Person, nevertheless said, ‘I will not fight.’
He felt weak, overcome as he was by his love and extreme compassion for his relatives. He was also filled with fear, not knowing what was righteous and what unrighteous. His mind was tortured by grief, because of the thought of future separation from his relations. So he threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot as if to fast to death.
Sri Shankaracharya
1.35 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.
Swami Adidevananda
1.35 These I would not slay, though they might slay me, even for the sovereignty of the three worlds - how much less for this earth O Krsna?
Swami Gambirananda
1.35 O Madhusudana, even if I am killed, I do not want to kill these even for the sake of a kingdom extending over the three worlds; what to speak of doing so for the earth!
Swami Sivananda
1.35. These I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, O Krishna, even for the sake of dominion over the three worlds; leave alone killing them for the sake of the earth.
Commentaries
Swami Sivananda
1.35 एतान् these? न not? हन्तुम् to kill? इच्छामि (I) wish? घ्नतःअपि even if they kill me? मधुसूदन O Madhusudana (the slayer of Madhu? a demon)? अपि even? त्रैलोक्यराज्यस्य dominion over the three worlds? हेतोः for the sake of? किम् how? नु then? महीकृते for the sake of the earth.No Commentary.