BG-2.6 — "Which of the Two Is Better, We Do Not Know"
BG-2.6
न चैतद्विद्मः कतरन्नो गरीयो यद्वा जयेम यदि वा नो जयेयुः । यानेव हत्वा न जिजीविषामस्तेऽवस्थिताः प्रमुखे धार्तराष्ट्राः ॥६॥
"And this too we do not know — which of the two is weightier for us: whether we should conquer them, or they should conquer us. The very sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, having slain whom we would not wish to live, stand arrayed before us."
This is the last verse spoken in Arjuna's own voice before he formally becomes a disciple. He has already refused to fight the elders (2.4) and called begging preferable to killing them (2.5); here the floor itself gives way. The despair is no longer about what to do but about which outcome to even want — because victory means slaying the kinsmen standing in front of him, and their death would void the worth of survival. Both pans of the scale are poisoned, so the scale cannot tip, and the deciding-faculty seizes. Jñāneśvar renders the seizure across three ovis — but renders it as a not-knowing that is already turning toward the teacher: what is truly good beyond this, YOU know (2.52). That tilt is the hinge on which Kṛṣṇa's entire teaching, from 2.11, will turn.
Ovi 2.52
Original (Marathi): येऱ्हवीं माझ्या चित्तीं जें होतें । तें मी विचारूनि बोलिलों एथें । परी निकें काय यापरौतें । तें तुम्हीं जाणा ॥५२॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (embedded speaker is Arjuna; माझ्या चित्तीं "in my heart" + मी विचारूनि बोलिलों "I considered and spoke" anchor the first-person, and तुम्हीं जाणा "YOU know" anchors Kṛṣṇa as addressee)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| येऱ्हवीं | otherwise / for the rest / in any case |
| माझ्या चित्तीं जें होतें | what was in my heart/mind (citta) |
| तें मी विचारूनि बोलिलों एथें | that I, having considered, have spoken here |
| परी निकें काय यापरौतें | but what is truly-good (nikēm) beyond this |
| तें तुम्हीं जाणा | that YOU know |
Literal translation
English: In any case — what was in my heart, that I have considered and spoken here. But what is truly good beyond this — that you know.
मराठी (आधुनिक): एवढंच — माझ्या मनात जे होतं, ते मी विचार करून इथं बोललो. पण याहून जे खरोखर हितकारक आहे, ते तुम्हालाच ठाऊक.
Sanskrit-root note
nikēm (Marathi, "good/fitting/wholesome") carries the same evaluative weight that the Sanskrit garīyaḥ (weightier/more-preferable) and śreyaḥ (the good) carry in the sloka and in BG-2.7 — Arjuna is reaching for exactly the śreyaḥ he will explicitly ask Kṛṣṇa to name at 2.7.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. This is a plain deferral-statement; no sustained image is present.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. This is chapter-2 despair-argument; no esoteric frame is active.
Cross-references
- Internal: Brackets with 2.54 — the तें तुम्हीं जाणा ("that YOU know") here is answered by the तें नेणों आम्ही ("that WE do not know") there. The cluster opens by handing the knowing to Kṛṣṇa and closes by discharging the not-knowing into his hands.
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi — the parallels arrive at 2.54 where the not-knowing is delivered in full)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 2.6 — na caitad vidmaḥ ("we do not know this"), amplified into humble deferral: परी निकें काय यापरौतें — तें तुम्हीं जाणा ("but what is truly-good beyond this — YOU know"). The tumhīm jāṇā is Jñāneśvar's pedagogical staging — the not-knowing already inclining toward the teacher, before Kṛṣṇa speaks at 2.11.
Modern application
- When you have said everything you honestly think — and you still know it isn't the answer. You've laid out your reasoning to the wiser person across the table: here is what's in my head, I've thought it through. The honest sentence that follows — but what's actually right, you'd know better than I — is not weakness; it is the first true move out of a stuck place.
- When deferring to a mentor, therapist, or elder is the most honest thing you can do. Not abdicating the decision, but admitting the edge of your own sight. Arjuna does not pretend to a clarity he lacks; he says tēm tumhīm jāṇā and means it.
- When you finally distinguish "what I want" from "what is good." Arjuna reports what was in his heart (माझ्या चित्तीं) and then, separately, asks after what is truly good (निकें) — the two are not the same, and noticing the gap is the beginning of discrimination.
Sādhanā
Today, take one decision you are stuck on. Write, in one line, exactly what is "in your heart" about it — your honest leaning. Then write a second line: "but what is actually good here, I do not fully know." Sit with the second line for sixty seconds without rushing to resolve it.
Arc
2.52 frames the confession as a deferral — what is better, you know; 2.53 sharpens the source of the bind, naming the kinsmen one would die for who now stand opposite.
Ovi 2.53
Original (Marathi): पैं वीरु जयांसी ऐकिजे । आणि या बोलींचि प्राणु सांडिजे । ते एथ संग्रामव्याजें । उभे आहाती ॥५३॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (embedded speaker is Arjuna, continuing the despair-confession to Kṛṣṇa)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| पैं वीरु जयांसी ऐकिजे | indeed, the heroes of whom one (merely) hears (their fame) |
| आणि या बोलींचि प्राणु सांडिजे | and on whose very word one would lay down life (prāṇa) |
| ते एथ संग्रामव्याजें | they, here, under the pretext of battle (sangrāma-vyāja) |
| उभे आहाती | stand arrayed |
Literal translation
English: The very heroes of whom one only hears the renown — on whose mere word one would give up life — they stand here, under the pretext of battle.
मराठी (आधुनिक): ज्यांची केवळ कीर्ती ऐकावी, आणि ज्यांच्या शब्दासाठी प्राणही द्यावा — तेच इथं, युद्धाच्या निमित्तानं, समोर उभे आहेत.
Sanskrit-root note
sangrāma-vyāja = sangrāma (battle) + vyāja (pretext, cover, ostensible-cause) — Jñāneśvar's word: the war is the vyāja, the mere occasion, that has placed the beloved against the beloved. The Sanskrit names only that they stand arrayed (avasthitāḥ); the "pretext" framing is the Marathi elevation.
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. sangrāma-vyāja ("battle-as-pretext") is a compressed idiom, not a sustained image.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi. प्राणु सांडिजे ("one would give up life/breath") is the ordinary idiom for laying down one's life — not prāṇāyāma or any prāṇa-yogic technicality.
Cross-references
- Internal: (none confidently identified beyond the linear cluster chain)
- Tukaram parallel: (none specific to this ovi)
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 2.6 — yān eva hatvā na jijīviṣāmaḥ — te'vasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ ("having slain whom we would not wish to live — these stand arrayed in front"), rendered as पैं वीरु जयांसी ऐकिजे — आणि या बोलींचि प्राणु सांडिजे — ते एथ संग्रामव्याजें — उभे आहाती. The kinship-bond (those one would die for) is the Sanskrit's na jijīviṣāmaḥ; the sangrāmavyāja pretext-framing is Jñāneśvar's.
Modern application
- When the person on the other side of the conflict is someone you love. The estranged sibling across the inheritance dispute; the old friend now your competitor; the parent you are fighting and would still, in any other room, give anything for. The war is the vyāja — the surface occasion — and underneath it the bond is intact, which is exactly what makes it unbearable.
- When "it's just business" or "it's just the process" is the pretext that has set you against your own. Sangrāma-vyāja — a structural occasion (a lawsuit, a reorg, a divorce proceeding) becomes the cover under which people who care about each other are made adversaries by the machinery, not by the heart.
- When you realize the people you most respect are the ones you're now expected to defeat. The very figures whose word you'd have followed anywhere now stand on the opposite side — and the respect doesn't vanish, it just becomes the wound.
Sādhanā
Today, if you are in any conflict, name the vyāja — the surface occasion (the money, the role, the process) — on one line, and on the next line name what the bond underneath it actually is. See whether the fight is really about the vyāja or merely happening under it.
Arc
2.53 names the kinsmen-source of the bind (those one would die for, now opposite); 2.54 delivers the bind itself — to slay them or to withdraw, which of the two is good, we do not know.
Ovi 2.54
Original (Marathi): आतां ऐसियांतें वधावें । कीं अव्हेरूनियां निघावें । या दोहींमाजीं बरवें । तें नेणों आम्ही ॥५४॥ Voice: krishna-to-arjuna (embedded speaker is Arjuna; आम्ही "WE" anchors the first-person plural of the Sanskrit vidmaḥ / nēṇōm)
Word-by-word gloss
| Marathi | Meaning |
|---|---|
| आतां ऐसियांतें वधावें | now, should these (such ones) be slain (vadha) |
| कीं अव्हेरूनियां निघावें | or, disdaining/forsaking (them), should one withdraw / go away |
| या दोहींमाजीं बरवें | which of these two is the good (baravēm) |
| तें नेणों आम्ही | that we do not know (neṇōm) |
Literal translation
English: Now — should these be slain, or should one disdain them and withdraw? Which of these two is the good — that we do not know.
मराठी (आधुनिक): आता — यांना मारावं, की यांचा त्याग करून निघून जावं? या दोहोंपैकी काय चांगलं, ते आम्हाला कळत नाही.
Sanskrit-root note
neṇōm (Marathi, "we do not know") renders the Sanskrit na vidmaḥ with the plural preserved — Arjuna says āmhī (we), not "I." The despair has spread from the personal "I am confused" to a collapse of the whole moral field: we — anyone in this position — could not tell. baravēm ("the good/better") carries the comparative force of garīyaḥ (the weightier).
Metaphor-unfold
No extended metaphor in this ovi. The latent image is the garīyaḥ / baravēm weighing-balance — two courses (slay / withdraw) laid on a scale that will not tip — but it lives in a single comparative-weight word, not a sustained vehicle; better recorded as the weighing-figure behind the binary than inflated into a full unfold.
Nāth-yogic layer
No Nāth-yogic referent in this ovi.
Cross-references
- Internal: Brackets with 2.52 — तें नेणों आम्ही ("that WE do not know") here closes the not-knowing that 2.52 opened with तें तुम्हीं जाणा ("that YOU know"). The cluster's hinge: the not-knowing, having been handed toward the teacher at 2.52, is now discharged in full — which is precisely the opening Kṛṣṇa's teaching needs to begin at 2.11.
- Tukaram parallels:
- Abhang 2600 — आतां आहे नाहीं । न कळे आळी करा कांहीं ("now whether it is or is not — I do not understand; make some pleading") ... दुजें कोणी तुम्हांविण ("who else is there but you"). The na kaḷē / नेणों is verbatim Arjuna's epistemic paralysis — but Tukaram resolves the not-knowing not by deciding between the two but by surrendering it to Pāṇḍharīnātha. Where Arjuna freezes at the binary, Tukaram shows the bhakti exit: the not-knowing handed to God. The structural rhyme makes the road out of 2.54 visible.
- Abhang 14 — सांडी मांडी मागें केल्या भरोवरी — अधिक चि परी दुःखाचिया ("the repeated dropping-and-setting-up only multiplied the suffering") ... तुका म्हणे येणें जाणें नाहीं आतां ("Tukā says: now there is no more coming-and-going"). The सांडी मांडी — dropping one course and taking up the other, over and over — is Arjuna's वधावें कीं निघावें oscillation, and Tukaram diagnoses the oscillation itself as the suffering (अधिक चि दुःखाचिया), pointing to its cessation (येणें जाणें नाहीं) rather than to a winning choice between the two.
- Source citation: Bhagavad Gītā 2.6 — na caitad vidmaḥ katarat no garīyaḥ ("we do not know which of the two is weightier"), rendered directly as या दोहींमाजीं बरवें — तें नेणों आम्ही, with the slay-or-withdraw binary (वधावें कीं निघावें) rendering katarat (which-of-two) and the plural आम्ही carrying vidmaḥ faithfully.
Modern application
- When both options cost you something irreplaceable, and the scale will not tip. Stay in the marriage or leave; keep the dying parent on the machine or let go; take the job that betrays one loyalty or refuse it and betray another. The agony of katarat garīyaḥ is not indecision-from-laziness — it is two genuine goods (or two genuine harms) that cannot be weighed, and the honest report is नेणों आम्ही: I cannot tell which is better.
- When you keep dropping one choice and picking up the other. This morning you'll leave; by evening you'll stay; tomorrow you'll leave again. Tukaram's सांडी मांडी — the oscillation itself is the suffering, not the prelude to resolving it. Naming the oscillation as the pain is more honest than pretending the next reconsideration will settle it.
- When "I don't know which is right" is the truest thing you can say — and saying it to someone is the first relief. The paralysis isn't ended by forcing a choice; it loosens the moment you stop pretending to a clarity you don't have and lay the genuine नेणों before someone who can hold it with you.
Sādhanā
Today, take the one decision where both options cost something real. On paper, draw two columns and write what each course would take from you — not what it gives, what it costs. Then write at the bottom, honestly: "which of these is better, I do not know." Notice that letting the sentence be true — rather than forcing a false certainty — is itself a small release of the grip.
Arc
2.54 closes the cluster by discharging the not-knowing in full (तें नेणों आम्ही) — the seizure of the deciding-faculty laid bare before the teacher. The next śloka, BG-2.7, turns this directly into surrender: śiṣyas te'ham śādhi mām tvām prapannam — "I am your disciple, instruct me" — and asks Kṛṣṇa to tell him decisively yac chreyaḥ syāt (what the good is). The तुम्हीं जाणा / नेणों आम्ही of this cluster becomes the explicit request to be taught.
Cluster summary
Core teaching: BG-2.6 is the deepest layer of Arjuna's collapse — not "I will not fight" but na caitad vidmaḥ katarat no garīyaḥ, "we do not even know which of the two outcomes is weightier." To win is to slay the kinsmen standing in front of him, whose death would make survival itself unwished-for; to lose is defeat. Both pans of the scale are poisoned, so the scale cannot tip, and the deciding-faculty seizes. Jñāneśvar renders this across three ovis as a not-knowing already inclining toward the teacher: what is truly good beyond this, YOU know (2.52) → the kinsmen one would die for now stand opposite under war's pretext (2.53) → to slay them or to withdraw, which is the good, that we do not know (2.54).
Chapter arc position: This is the last verse in Arjuna's own voice before he formally becomes a disciple, in the opening of adhyāya 2 (Sānkhya-yoga). His chapter-1 collapse has hardened into articulated despair-arguments: 2.4 refuses to slay the elders, 2.5 prefers begging to killing them, and 2.6 confesses the epistemic floor giving way — he cannot even weigh which outcome is good. The tēm tumhīm jāṇā ("YOU know") of 2.52 already leans toward the surrender that BG-2.7 will make explicit.
Connects to BG-2.7: kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ ... śiṣyas te'ham śādhi mām tvām prapannam — Arjuna names his condition (mind-deluded-about-duty) and takes refuge as Kṛṣṇa's disciple, asking to be told decisively yac chreyaḥ syāt (what is truly good). The katarat garīyaḥ not-knowing of BG-2.6 flows straight into the request to be told the good; the deferral of 2.52 becomes the explicit śiṣyas te'ham surrender — and only after this surrender does Kṛṣṇa's teaching proper begin at BG-2.11. The two Tukārām parallels (2600, 14) mark where the road out of the nēṇōm runs: not by deciding between the two courses, but by surrendering the not-knowing itself.