Arjuna said: O Janardana! If you consider buddhi (knowledge) superior to karma, then why, O Keshava, do you engage me in terrible action? With your seemingly contradictory statements, you are bewildering my intellect. Therefore, please decide and tell me one thing definitively, by which I may attain the supreme good.
Commentary: The term 'Janardana' expresses Arjuna's sentiment as if to say, "O Shri Krishna! You are the fulfiller of everyone's prayers; therefore, you will certainly fulfill mine as well."
'If you consider knowledge superior to action... why do you engage me, O Keshava?' – There is a weakness in the human heart that when one asks a question, one desires the speaker's answer to support one's own view or doctrine. This is called a weakness because to resolve to follow the speaker's instruction, whether it is agreeable or entirely disagreeable to the mind, is true valor; everything else is merely weakness or cowardice. Due to this weakness, a person finds it difficult to endure adversity. When he cannot bear adversity, he dons the cloak of goodness, meaning that in the guise of goodness, evil arrives. That evil which comes under the guise of goodness is very difficult to renounce. Here, in Arjuna, the evil of abandoning duty has arrived under the guise of the goodness of renouncing violence. Therefore, he is considering knowledge superior to obligatory action. For this reason, he asks here: If you consider knowledge superior to karma, then why do you engage me in the terrible action of war?
In the thirty-ninth verse of the second chapter, the Lord used the term 'buddhir yoge' to speak of equanimity (samatā) alone; but Arjuna understood it as knowledge. Therefore, he says to the Lord: O Janardana! You said earlier, 'I have explained this buddhi in Sānkhya; now hear of it in the context of Yoga. Endowed with this buddhi, you will cast off the bondage of karma.' But the bondage of karma is cast off only when there is knowledge. You also said that 'Buddhiyoga' (the yoga of intellect) means knowledge is far superior to action (2.49). If, according to your view, knowledge is superior and better than karma, then you should not engage me even in scripturally enjoined auspicious actions like sacrifice, charity, and austerity, but should engage me only in knowledge. On the contrary, why are you engaging me in an extremely cruel action like war, in which one has to kill men all day?
Earlier, Arjuna's mind was filled with enthusiasm for battle, and in that fervor he told the Lord, 'O Achyuta! Place my chariot between the two armies so I may see who is here to fight with me.' But when the Lord placed the chariot between the two armies, in front of Bhishma and Drona and the kings, and said, 'Behold these Kurus,' then Arjuna's familial attachment was aroused. With the arousal of attachment, his inclination turned away from war, from action, and towards knowledge; because in knowledge, one does not have to perform terrible actions like war. Therefore, Arjuna says: Why do you engage me in terrible action?
Here, the term 'buddhiḥ' is taken to mean 'knowledge'. If the term 'buddhiḥ' here is taken to mean 'equanimity' (samatā), then the charge of contradictory statements would not stand. The reason is that in the forty-eighth verse of the second chapter, the Lord instructed Arjuna to perform action while established in Yoga (equanimity). The charge of contradictory statements would be valid only if, in Arjuna's understanding, there were two different things, and only then would this question arise: If, according to your view, knowledge is superior to karma, then why do you engage me in terrible action? Secondly, in His answer to Arjuna's question later, the Lord speaks of two paths—the path of knowledge for the wise and the path of action for the yogis. This also makes it logically consistent to take the meaning of the term 'buddhiḥ' in Arjuna's questions as 'knowledge'.
Any seeker can obtain the correct answer to his question only by asking with reverence. It is not possible to obtain the correct answer by raising objections skeptically. Arjuna has complete faith in the Lord; therefore, the sentiment expressed by the above question is that if the Lord says so, Arjuna can engage even in terrible action like war for his own welfare.
'With your seemingly contradictory statements, you are bewildering my intellect' – The sentiment in these words of Arjuna is that sometimes you say, 'Perform action' ('kuru karmāṇi' 2.48), and sometimes you say, 'Take refuge in buddhi' ('buddhau śaraṇam anviccha' 2.49). With these seemingly mixed statements of yours, my intellect is becoming bewildered, meaning I cannot clearly understand whether I should perform action or take refuge in knowledge.
Here, the use of the word 'iva' (as if) twice indicates Arjuna's faith in the Lord. Due to this faith, Arjuna accepts the Lord's words as correct and also understands that the Lord is not bewildering his intellect. However, because he does not understand the Lord's words precisely, the Lord's statements seem contradictory to him, and it appears to him as if the Lord is bewildering his intellect. If the Lord were bewildering Arjuna's intellect, then who would remove Arjuna's delusion?
'Therefore, please decide and tell me one thing definitively, by which I may attain the supreme good' – Please decide between whether my welfare will come from performing action or from knowledge, and tell me one thing for my sake, by which my welfare may be accomplished. I had said earlier as well, 'Tell me that which is for my certain good' ('yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṃ brūhi tan me' 2.7), and now too I am saying the same thing.
Connection: In the next three verses (the third, fourth, and fifth), the Lord answers Arjuna's words regarding 'seemingly contradictory statements'.
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