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Chapter2- Sloka 1

sañjaya uvāca

taṃ tathā kṛipayāviṣṭam aśrupūrṇākulekṣhaṇam |

viṣīdantamidaṃ vākyam uvāca madhusūdanaḥ || 1 ||

(2.1)

sañjaya uvāca- Sañjaya said; madhusūdanaḥMadhusūdana; idaṃ vākyam uvāca- spoke these words; taṃ- to him (to Arjuna); tathā- who was thus; kṛpayā āviṣṭamfilled with compassion; aśrupūrṇākulekṣaṇam- whose eyes were full of tears and pain; viṣīdantam- and whose mind was numb;

Purport

Sañjaya continues to give an account of the happenings on the battlefield. He spoke the following words to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, "Madhusūdana spoke as follows to Arjuna, who was thus filled with compassion, whose eyes were full of pain and tears, whose mind was numb due to immense grief."

 

tathā The word tathā emphasises that Arjuna was taken over by compassion at an inappropriate place.

kṛipayāviṣṭam Sri Vedānta Desikan, an eminent Srivainava ācārya in this context defines compassion as antaro viṣādaḥ (pain caused in the mind).

aśrupūrṇākulekṣhaṇam This pain was gushing out in the form of streams of tears from Arjuna's eyes.

viṣīdantamidaṃ As described in śloka 1.47, Arjuna cast aside his bow along with arrows and collapsed into a heap on his chariot. 

Madhusūdana Bhagawān is called Madhusūdana because HE destroyed the demons Madhu and Kaitabha who were personified rajo gua (quality of passion) and tamo gua (quality of ignorance) respectively. Sañjaya aptly addresses Kṛṣṇa by this name here, as a hint that these guas (present in Arjuna) which were the cause of Arjuna's intense grief were going to be destroyed by Kṛṣṇa.


Note: Gu​as are attributes of material nature. They influence the behaviour of all the objects in nature. Since our bodies are also a product of nature, they have the three gu​as. Guas are as such invisible but are visible through our words, actions, attitude and the company we keep. They are called sattva (quality of goodness), rajas (quality of passion) and tamas (quality of ignorance).

Sri Ramanuja Center for Advanced Vedic Studies- Brindavan-UP

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