Shloka
न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो
यद्वा जयेम यदि वा नो जयेयुः |
यानेव हत्वा न जिजीविषामस्-
तेऽवस्थिताः प्रमुखे धार्तराष्ट्राः ||२-६||Transliteration
na caitadvidmaḥ kataranno garīyo yadvā jayema yadi vā no jayeyuḥ .
yāneva hatvā na jijīviṣāmaḥ te.avasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ ||2-6||Translations
Dr.S.Sankaranarayan
2.6. Whether we should coner [in the battle], or they should coner us-we do not know this viz., ‘which [of those two] is better for us’. [For], having killed whom, we would not wish to live at all, the same persons stand before us as Dhrtarastra’s men.
Shri Purohit Swami
2.6 Nor can I say whether it were better that they conquer me or for me to conquer them, since would no longer care to live if I killed these sons of Dhritarashtra, now preparing for fight.
Sri Abhinav Gupta
2.4-6 Katham etc. upto Dhartarastrah. By the portion Bhisma and Drona in war’ etc., and by the portion ‘I would [not] enjoy the objects of pleasure’, the Sage indicates that in Arjuna’s objection, the intention for a particular act and the intention for a particular result are the points deserving rejection. By the portion ‘We do not know this’ etc., he speaks of the intention for a particular action. For, without intention no action is possible. Certainly one does not proceed on a war with an intention of getting defeated. ‘[In the present war] even our victory would be surely our misfortune.’ This he says by the portion ‘It is good even to go about begging without killing the elders’. It is also impossible to conclude ‘Whether we desire victory or defeat’; for even in the case of our victory our relatives would perish totally.’
Sri Ramanuja
2.6 - 2.8 If you say, ‘After beginning the war, if we withdraw from the battle, the sons of Dhrtarastra will slay us all forcibly’, be it so. I think that even to be killed by them, who do not know the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness, is better for us than gaining unrighteous victory by killing them. After saying so, Arjuna surrendered himself at the feet of the Lord, overcome with dejection, saying. ‘Teach me, your disciple, who has taken refuge in you, what is good for me.’
Sri Shankaracharya
2.6 Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.
Swami Adidevananda
2.6 We do not know, which of the two is better for us - whether our vanishing them, or their vanishing us. The very sons of Dhrtarastra, whom, if we slay, we should not wish to live, even they are standing in array against us.
Swami Gambirananda
2.6 We do not know this as well as to which is the better for us, (and) whether we shall win, or whether they shall coner us. Those very sons of Dhrtarastra, by killing whom we do not wish to live, stand in confrontation.
Swami Sivananda
2.6 I can hardly tell which will be better, that we should coner them or that they should coner us. Even the sons of Dhritarashtra, after slaying whom we do not wish to live, stand facing us.
Commentaries
Swami Sivananda
2.6 न not? च and? एतत् this? विद्मः (we) know? कतरत् which? नः for us? गरीयः better? यत् that? वा or? जयेम we should coner? यदि if? वा or? नः us? जयेयुः they should coner? यान् whom? एव even? हत्वा having slain? न not? जिजीविषामः we wish to live? ते those? अवस्थिताः (are) standing? प्रमुखे in face? धार्तराष्ट्राः sons of Dhritarashtra.No commentary.