Bhagavad-gita 1.26 – 1.30 Arjuna Bewildered seeing his Friends and Relatives in Battle

Chapter-1 of Bhagavad-gita is called vishāda yoga or condition of despondency of Arjuna. Seeing his friends and relatives present before him in fighting spirit made Arjuna feel the limbs of his body quivering and his mouth drying up. Arjuna became overwhelmed with compassion (krpayā parayāvisto) and started lamenting (in utter bewilderment). "How it is possible, Krsna, that I have to kill the other side, my fathers, my father-in-law, my grandfather, my sons, my grandsons, my brother, my so many friends?"

When there is danger, many symptoms and different transformations of bodily constitution appear. These occur because of many reserve energies within the body. Bodily symptoms act because the mind is there. As the mind is absorbed in some subject matter, the bodily symptoms work, or the senses work according to that mind.

Arjuna felt his whole body trembling, his hair standing on end, his Gandiva slipping from his hand and his skin burning. Such phenomena occur out of great fear under material conditions. Arjuna’s symptoms in this situation were out of material fear of loss of life. He became so impatient that his famous bow was slipping from his hands. Because his heart was burning within him, he was feeling a burning sensation of the skin.

The Gandiva bow was gifted to Arjuna by the demigods and played a great role in his battles and slaying of many warriors. He had taken a vow that he would never drop it from his body. He even used to sleep with the divine bow. In the battlefield of Kurukshetra, the same Gandiva slipped from his shoulders seeing his relatives (svajana) in battle ensemble.

Arjuna was unable to stand any longer, he was forgetting himself and his mind was reeling. Excessive attachment for material things puts a man in such a bewildering condition of existence. Such fearlessness and loss of mental equilibrium take place in persons who are too affected by material conditions.