Arjuna's Question

ages 11-14

Between two armies at Kurukshetra, the archer Arjuna sees his own teachers, grandfather and cousins on the other side, puts down his bow and asks Krishna what is right. Krishna's answer becomes the Bhagavad Gita.

Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.

The story

The Mahabharata tells of two families of cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who quarrelled over a kingdom for many years. Every attempt at peace failed, and at last the two sides gathered their armies on the plain of Kurukshetra. In the palace, the blind king Dhritarashtra, father of the Kauravas, asked his minister Sanjaya, who had been given the gift of seeing far-off things, to tell him what was happening on the field.

Conches were blown on both sides, a huge roaring sound that seemed to shake the earth and sky. Arjuna, the finest archer of the Pandavas, stood in his chariot. His charioteer was his friend Krishna. "Krishna," said Arjuna, "drive my chariot between the two armies, so that I can see who I have to face."

Krishna drove the chariot into the open ground between the armies. Arjuna looked across. There stood his great-uncle Bhishma, who had raised him. There stood Drona, the teacher who had taught him archery. There were uncles, cousins, sons and grandsons, fathers-in-law and friends. On both sides, he saw only family.

Arjuna's legs went weak. His mouth went dry, and his great bow Gandiva slipped from his hand. "Krishna," he said, "I don't want victory, or a kingdom, or pleasures, if this is the price. These are the very people for whose sake we wanted a kingdom. How could we be happy afterwards?"

He went on, giving reason after reason: what would happen to families, to their old customs, to the people left behind? Then he put down his bow and arrows and sat down in the chariot, overcome with sorrow.

Krishna spoke firmly at first: "Where has this weakness come from, at a moment like this? Stand up!" But Arjuna was not simply afraid. He was confused about what was right. "How can I raise my bow against Bhishma and Drona, whom I ought to honour?" he asked. "My mind is unsure about my duty. I am your disciple. Tell me clearly what is good for me."

This is the moment the Bhagavad Gita begins. Arjuna has stopped acting as a warrior who knows everything and has become a student who asks. Krishna smiled gently, there between the two armies, and began to teach.

He told Arjuna that the wise do not grieve in the way he was grieving, because the Self in every being is never born and never dies; bodies come and go, the way a person changes clothes. He spoke of duty, of doing one's work with a steady mind, and of acting without being chained to the reward: "Your concern is with the action, never with its fruits."

Over seventeen more chapters, Arjuna keeps asking and Krishna keeps answering, about action and knowledge, devotion and the mind, God and the world. At the end, Arjuna says his doubts are gone, and that he will do as Krishna says. Teachers in every age have read Krishna's answers differently, and the Gita still begins in the same place: with someone honest enough to say, "I don't know what is right. Please teach me."

Families who read the Gita together often take from this opening that asking for help when you are truly confused is not weakness but the beginning of wisdom.

Something to do together

Talk it over together: when have you faced a choice where every option seemed to hurt someone? Who did you ask for help, and what did you ask them? Then read Gita 2.7 together, in English and in Sanskrit if you can, and notice that the whole book begins with a question.

Gita Jayanti: the festival this story belongs to

For grown-ups

The story ends above. Here, for grown-ups: how families tell it in other ways, and the books it comes from.

How the story differs, and where it comes from

How the story differs

Many temples and families keep Gita Jayanti, the day the Gita is said to have been spoken, in the month of Margashirsha, by reading the Gita aloud. Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva and many later teachers wrote commentaries that read Krishna's answers in their own ways; this story stops where the teaching begins, so it does not choose between them.

Where the story comes from

Bhagavad Gita (Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva), chapter 1 and chapter 2 (1.1–47 (Dhritarashtra's question, the conches, Arjuna sees his kin, puts down his bow); 2.1–10 (Krishna's rebuke, Arjuna asks to be taught); 2.11–72 (the teaching begins); 18.73 (Arjuna's doubts are gone))
The Bhagavadgîtâ with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ, translated by Kâshinâth Trimbak Telang (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. VIII, ed. F. Max Müller) (Chapters I–II, pp. 37–52 (leaves n50–n65))
Bhagavad Gita, 2.7 (Arjuna: 'I am your disciple; teach me')

Sources

The Bhagavadgîtâ with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ, translated by Kâshinâth Trimbak Telang (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. VIII, ed. F. Max Müller) (Chapters I–II, pp. 37–52 (leaves n50–n65))
Bhagavad Gita, 2.47 ('your concern is with action, never with its fruits')

Questions families ask

Source and licence

Our explanation: Written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against them. Free to quote with credit.
Checked: Checked against the sources listed, October 15, 2026.
Updated: October 25, 2026

Sources and licences