Building on his fear of sin, Arjuna now draws his powerful, emotional, and seemingly logical conclusion. The thirty-seventh verse, known as the Tasman Narha Vayam Hantum verse, is his definitive statement against the war. It is a direct appeal to Lord Krishna, arguing from the sacred platform of family duty over a warrior’s duty. This verse presents Arjuna’s core dilemma in its clearest form.
Sanskrit Verse
तस्मान्नार्हा वयं हन्तुं धार्तराष्ट्रान्स्वबान्धवान् ।
स्वजनं हि कथं हत्वा सुखिनः स्याम माधव ॥ ३७ ॥Transliteration
tāsmānnārhā vayaṁ hantuṁ dhārtarāṣṭrānsvabāndhavān |
svajanaṁ hi kathaṁ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava || 37 ||Word for Word Translation
tasmāt – therefore; na arhāḥ – are not justified; vayam – we; hantum – to kill; dhārtarāṣṭrān – the sons of Dhritarashtra; svabāndhavān – our own kinsmen; svajanam – our own people; hi – certainly; katham – how; hatvā – by killing; sukhinaḥ – happy; syāma – can we be; mādhava – O Madhava (Krishna, husband of the goddess of fortune).
English Translation
Therefore, we are not justified in killing the sons of Dhritarashtra, our own kinsmen. O Madhava, how could we ever be happy by killing our own people?
Explanation
Each Bhagavad Gita verse whispers ancient truths, let’s listen closely with Vedic Stories…
This poignant declaration is the logical endpoint of Arjuna’s grief. He begins with a definitive legal and moral judgment: “tasmāt na arhāḥ”—”Therefore, we are not justified.” Despite acknowledging in the previous verse that the Kauravas are “aggressors,” he concludes that their status as family overrides this. He is making a powerful choice, placing the Dharma of kinship above the Dharma of a warrior.
Arjuna’s choice of words is deeply emotional. He refers to the enemy not as soldiers or kings, but as “svabāndhavān” and “svajanam”—”our own kinsmen” and “our own people.” He is deliberately re-establishing the human and familial bonds that the call to war seeks to sever. He is forcing himself and Krishna to see them not as adversaries, but as an extension of themselves.
This leads to his final, unanswerable question from a worldly perspective: “How could we be happy by killing our own people?” He addresses Krishna as “Madhava,” the husband of the goddess of fortune. This is a subtle and brilliant irony. He is asking the ultimate source of all good fortune how any good fortune or happiness (`sukhinaḥ`) could possibly result from an act as horrific as killing one’s own family. To Arjuna, it is a logical and emotional impossibility.
Conclusion
Arjuna’s powerful argument teaches us about the profound conflict between abstract duties and personal love. He has successfully argued himself into a corner where fighting is morally unjustifiable. He has concluded that the bonds of kinship are sacred and inviolable, more so than any claim to a kingdom or any legal right to punish an aggressor. From his perspective, to engage in this battle would be to destroy the very foundation of a happy life.
This verse beautifully frames the central problem of the Gita. Arjuna is not arguing from a place of cowardice, but from a place of deep, albeit attached, compassion. He has built a fortress of logical and emotional reasoning against the war. It is this fortress that Krishna’s divine wisdom must now dismantle, not by proving him wrong, but by showing him a higher, more profound way of seeing duty, action, and the self.
Read Next: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 – Verse 38 – Yadyapy Ete Na Pashyanti
