When you cannot act
This sequence follows the Gītā's own opening: a man who cannot make himself move. It begins with the paralysis rather than the answer, because the text does. It is not a decision-making method, and nothing here will tell you what to choose. Note that the text's first reply to Arjuna, at 2.2–2.3, is a rebuke — Kṛṣṇa calls his dejection ignoble, then unmanly — and this path uses neither verse.
A reading suggestion from Devdarshan Bastola, GMBPsS, counselling psychologist — not treatment, not a description of anyone reading it, and not a substitute for care you are already receiving. Nothing here asks you to hurry anything you feel.
If you are in crisis, or having thoughts of ending your life, please contact your doctor, your therapist, your local emergency number, or a crisis line in your country now. That is a better use of the next hour than reading on alone.
गाण्डीवं स्रंसते हस्तात्त्वक्चैव परिदह्यते।
The Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin burns all over; I am unable to stand, and my mind is reeling, as it were.
Arjuna reports that he cannot remain standing and that his mind is reeling — bhramatīva ca me manaḥ. The sequence starts here because this is a description, not a verdict. Nothing is asked of him yet.
एवमुक्त्वाऽर्जुनः संख्ये रथोपस्थ उपाविशत्।
Sanjaya said, Having thus spoken in the midst of the battlefield, Arjuna cast away his bow and arrow and, his mind overwhelmed with sorrow, sat down…
He puts the bow down and sits, śoka-saṁvigna-mānasaḥ, his mind churning with grief. The chapter ends there. The text gives stopping a whole verse before anyone replies to it.
न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो
I can hardly tell which would be better, that we should conquer them or that they should conquer us. Even the sons of Dhritarashtra, whom we do not…
The deadlock stated plainly: he does not know which would be worse, that they conquer or that they are conquered. Paralysis is often read as avoidance. Here it is what happens when both outcomes are unbearable.
कार्पण्यदोषोपहतस्वभावः
My heart is overpowered by the taint of pity; my mind is confused as to my duty. I ask Thee: Tell me decisively what is good for me. I am Thy…
kārpaṇya, a wretched smallness, has struck down his own nature, and his mind is confused about dharma — what is his to do. Then he asks. The sequence turns here, and the turn is a question, not a resolve. The page's word-gloss renders kārpaṇya as "cowardice" and Sivananda as "pity"; the word is nearer a wretched smallness, and it is Arjuna's word for himself, not a charge laid against him.
न हि कश्चित्क्षणमपि जातु तिष्ठत्यकर्मकृत्।
Verily, no one can remain for even a moment without performing action; for everyone is made to act helplessly, indeed, by the qualities born of…
The frame changes. No one stays actionless even a moment; the guṇas, the strands of nature, keep acting through us. Read as description, this removes not-deciding from the list of neutral options.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
Your right is only to work, but not to its results; do not let the results of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.
Placed after the deadlock rather than before it. The claim is on the action, not on its phala, its fruit. Paralysis usually attaches to an outcome, and this verse moves where the weight sits.
इति ते ज्ञानमाख्यातं गुह्याद्गुह्यतरं मया।
Thus, wisdom more secret than secrecy itself has been declared to you by me. Reflect on it fully, then act as you wish.
Kṛṣṇa stops. Reflect on all of it, he says, then act as you wish — yathecchasi tathā kuru. The path ends where the argument does, with the choice handed back rather than settled.
The Gītā answers Arjuna at length. It does not answer him quickly, and the last verse of the argument hands the choice back rather than closing it. Whatever was resolved on that field took the whole conversation to reach.