The Gita in daily life
A decision where both ways cost something
I have to decide, and whichever way I choose somebody gets hurt. How does the Gita help with that?
I have to decide, and whichever way I choose somebody gets hurt. How does the Gita help with that?
This is Arjuna’s own position, not an illustration of it. At 2.6 he says he does not even know which would be the better outcome, that they should win or that his side should. At 2.7 he says his understanding of dharma has failed him, asks to be told plainly what is better, and calls himself a student. Krishna then talks for sixteen chapters. At 18.63 he stops and says: weigh all of it fully, and then act as you wish. The decision is left with the man who has to live inside it.
Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust · from the Bhagavad Gita
It is worth being clear about Arjuna’s condition, because it is not indecision of the ordinary kind. He is not weighing a gain against a gain. Both roads run through his own family. 2.6 is the sentence of a man who has stopped being able to tell which outcome he would even want. 2.7 is what he does with that: he says his nature has been struck down, he admits the confusion is about dharma and not about tactics, and he asks a person he trusts to teach him. Nothing is hidden and nothing is dressed up. The asking is itself the first move.
What follows is not a ruling on his case. At 3.2 Arjuna complains that the words sound mixed and asks to be told the one thing that will get him to what is best — and he does not get that either. What he is given instead is a training of the faculty that decides. 18.30 describes the understanding the Gita calls sattvic: it knows when to engage and when to withdraw, what is to be done and what is not, what to fear and what not to fear. The Gita works on the instrument, not on the verdict.
Two things follow for a person standing where Arjuna stood. First, 18.48: every undertaking carries some flaw, as fire carries smoke, so a choice with a cost in it is not thereby the wrong choice, and waiting for the clean option is waiting for something that does not arrive. Second, 18.63: consider it fully, then act. Arjuna does act, and at 18.73 he says his confusion has gone and he will do what he has been told. The Gita ends with a decision taken, not with a rule for taking it.
In the Gita’s own words
Where this comes from.
Bhagavad Gita 2.6Arjuna
न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो
यद्वा जयेम यदि वा नो जयेयुः ।
यानेव हत्वा न जिजीविषाम
स्तेऽवस्थिताः प्रमुखे धार्तराष्ट्राः ॥Nor do we know which is the greater thing — that we should win, or that they should. The sons of Dhritarashtra stand there before us, and if we killed them we would not wish to live.
Arjuna says he does not know which outcome would be better, winning or losing. The Gita begins from a man who cannot see a good answer, not from a man who will not look.
Bhagavad Gita 2.7Arjuna
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः
पृच्छामि त्वां धर्मसम्मूढचेताः ।
यच्छ्रेयः स्यान्निश्चितं ब्रूहि तन्मे
शिष्यस्तेऽहं शाधि मां त्वां प्रपन्नम् ॥My own nature is struck down by a poverty of spirit. My mind is confused about dharma, and so I ask you: tell me plainly what is better. I am your student. I have come to you. Teach me.
His confusion is about dharma itself, and he says so, asks to be told plainly what is better, and puts himself in the position of a student.
Bhagavad Gita 3.2Arjuna
व्यामिश्रेणेव वाक्येन बुद्धिं मोहयसीव मे ।
तदेकं वद निश्चित्य येन श्रेयोऽहमाप्नुयाम् ॥Your words seem mixed, and they leave my understanding confused. Decide, and tell me the one thing by which I may reach what is best.
Arjuna asks for one decisive instruction because the teaching sounds mixed to him. The request is reasonable and it is not granted in that form.
Bhagavad Gita 18.30Shri Bhagavan
प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च कार्याकार्ये भयाभये ।
बन्धं मोक्षं च या वेत्ति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी ॥The understanding that knows engagement and withdrawal, what is to be done and what is not, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation — that understanding, O Partha, is of goodness.
What the Gita is actually building: the understanding that can tell what is to be done from what is not. The instrument, rather than the answer.
Bhagavad Gita 18.48Shri Bhagavan
सहजं कर्म कौन्तेय सदोषमपि न त्यजेत् ।
सर्वारम्भा हि दोषेण धूमेनाग्निरिवावृताः ॥One should not give up the work born with him, O son of Kunti, even when it carries some flaw; for every undertaking is wrapped in a flaw, as fire is wrapped in smoke.
Every undertaking is wrapped in some flaw, as fire is wrapped in smoke. A cost inside a choice does not by itself make the choice wrong.
Bhagavad Gita 18.63Shri Bhagavan
इति ते ज्ञानमाख्यातं गुह्याद्गुह्यतरं मया ।
विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु ॥Thus has knowledge more secret than every secret been told to you by Me. Weigh it fully, and then act as you wish.
After everything has been said, Krishna hands the decision back: weigh it fully, then act as you wish. This is the single most important verse on this page.
Bhagavad Gita 18.73Arjuna
नष्टो मोहः स्मृतिर्लब्धा त्वत्प्रसादान्मयाच्युत ।
स्थितोऽस्मि गतसन्देहः करिष्ये वचनं तव ॥My delusion is destroyed and I have regained my memory through Your grace, O Achyuta. I stand firm, my doubt gone; I shall do as You say.
Arjuna answers: the confusion is gone and he will act. The Gita closes with a decision made, not with a procedure for making one.
What to actually do
Small, and today.
- Write both options as what they will cost, not as what they will get you. Arjuna’s own account at 2.6 begins with the cost and never leaves it out.
- Say the whole thing aloud to one person you can be a student in front of. 2.7 is Arjuna asking, and the asking comes before any answer does.
- Stop waiting for the option with nothing wrong in it. 18.48 says there is smoke in every fire. Choose the flaw you can carry honestly and name it to yourself.
- Once the thing is weighed, act, and stop reopening it. 18.63 gives permission to decide; 18.73 is what deciding looks like.
What the Gita does not say
The common expectation is that the Gita will supply the answer, or that the right choice will feel clean once it is found. It does neither. Krishna spends the whole book on how Arjuna sees and then says at 18.63 to consider it fully and act as he wishes. And 18.48 says plainly that every undertaking carries a flaw. A decision that hurts someone is not evidence that you have chosen wrongly; it may only be evidence that you were in a real situation.
The words behind this
Common questions
About this.
Does the Gita tell you what to choose?
Not in the way people hope. It gives Arjuna eighteen chapters on the self, on action and on what is worth wanting, and then at 18.63 tells him to weigh all of it and act as he wishes. Even his direct request at 3.2 for a single decisive instruction is not answered in that form. The text trains the judgement and leaves the judgement to you.
Is it weak to ask someone else what to do?
Arjuna asks, in as many words, at 2.7: he calls himself a student, says he has come for refuge, and asks to be taught. The Gita exists because of that request. Asking is not presented as a failure of nerve anywhere in the text. What Arjuna does not do is hand over the acting.
What if I choose and it turns out badly?
The Gita separates the work from the result at 2.47 and, at 18.48, says every undertaking has some flaw in it. A bad outcome is not by itself proof of a bad decision. What the text asks is that the weighing was honest and that the choice was not made to avoid discomfort.
How do I know my reasons are not just fear?
The Gita gives a rough test rather than a certainty. 18.30 says a clear understanding can tell what is to be done from what is not, and fear from fearlessness. 2.7 shows Arjuna naming his own faint-heartedness out loud before he asks anything. Naming it is the part you can actually do.