Gita 2.35

Sadhak: "Guru, this seems like Krishna is appealing to peer pressure—'what will the other warriors think?' Is that an appropriate motivation for spiritual teaching?"

Guru: "You are right that this is not the highest teaching. But consider: is Arjuna currently capable of acting from the highest teaching? He has just collapsed in despair, his bow fallen from his hands. Sometimes we must stand before we can run."

Sadhak: "So Krishna is using a lower motivation to get Arjuna moving, trusting that higher understanding will come later?"

Guru: "Exactly. This is skillful teaching—upāya in Sanskrit. You use what works at the present moment. A drowning person cannot be taught philosophy; first you throw them a rope. Arjuna's attachment to warrior esteem is a rope he will grasp. Once on shore, deeper teachings become possible."

Sadhak: "But isn't caring about what 'mahārathās' think just ego? Shouldn't Arjuna be indifferent to their judgment?"

Guru: "Eventually, yes—the Gita will teach equanimity toward praise and blame. But right now, Arjuna is not indifferent; he is deeply invested in this community of warriors. That investment can be used or fought. Fighting it at this moment would leave Arjuna even more paralyzed. Using it moves him toward action, where lessons can be learned."

Sadhak: "The verse says they will think he withdrew 'from fear.' But his real motivation is compassion and confusion, not fear. Isn't the world misjudging him?"

Guru: "This is a profound insight into how reputation works. The world judges actions, not intentions. A complex inner state appears as a simple outer behavior—withdrawal. Observers fill in the simplest explanation. This is not the world being unkind; it is how perception works. We never see others' motives directly; we infer them from behavior, usually incorrectly."

Sadhak: "So the teaching is also about the gap between our inner truth and how we appear to others?"

Guru: "Yes. And this gap can be bridged only by action. If Arjuna wants his compassion understood, he must find a way to act that expresses it clearly. Mere withdrawal will be misread. The challenge is to find action that is both true to inner reality and comprehensible to the world. This is what Krishna is guiding him toward."

Sadhak: "'Lāghavam'—insignificance. Is that really so bad? Many spiritual traditions value being unimportant, unknown, humble."

Guru: "There is chosen insignificance and fallen insignificance. A sage who withdraws from the world to seek truth is not 'lāghava'—their insignificance is willed, meaningful, respected. But a warrior who flees battle becomes insignificant through failure, not choice. The stain is not humility but humiliation. The difference is agency: did you step down, or did you fall?"

Sadhak: "This makes me think about my own life—times when I withdrew from challenges and wondered what people thought of me."

Guru: "That is the personal application. We all have our battlefields—confrontations avoided, truths unspoken, risks untaken. And we carry the suspicion that others noticed, that they interpreted our withdrawal as weakness. Whether or not they actually judge us, we judge ourselves. Krishna's words to Arjuna echo in our own conscience."