Chapter 1: Arjuna Viṣhāda Yoga – Transforming Grief into Yoga / Verse 28

Explanation of verses 1.28, 1.29 and 1.30:

Arjuna represents one with all the attainable resources in human life. He is well born, has a royal heredity; a powerful archer with unparalleled fame as a fighter.

He has acquired all the external material resources one aspires to gain. His famous bow Gandiva signifies all these.

He had enormous bodily strength and agility. He was so strong as to administer a severe blow on the chest of Lord Shiva, who came masked as a wild archer (Kirata), when he confronted Arjuna chasing a boar.

Next in the list is the power of articulation. Arjuna has this also. Thereupon comes mental strength, will, wish, etc. These apparently Arjuna has abundantly. Intellectual prowess is the last in the list, which too he has in ample measure, as evidenced from the long speech he gave to Krishna justifying his unwillingness to fight and the need to retreat from the war.

But in Kurukshetra when he examined the armies, he finds all these are of no avail. Everything one after another deserted him pitiably. Gandiva slipping from his hand, body trembling, mouth parching, mind whirling, intelligence belligerent — Arjuna had a total crumbling of his personality.

This leads one to the great question: Is there anything besides all these external, bodily, mental and other resources, to come to the rescue of man?

Is this not what the Upanishads answer, by exhorting all to recognize and realize the Imperishable Self?