Meaningful smile

Arjuna is on the battlefield, but on the opposite side

are those who are dear to him — his grand uncle
Bhishma, his teacher Drona, and his uncle Salya — and
Arjuna is overcome with emotion. He drops his bow,
and says he cannot fight. In his mind would have
flashed images of Bhishma treating him with affection;
he must have thought of Drona’s kindness to him.
Whatever Drona had taught his son Aswattama, he had
taught Arjuna too. Arjuna is confused and distressed.
The time to advise him has arrived. One who has no
worries is not willing to listen to advice. But one who is
anxious and unhappy will pay attention if offered
advice. And so Lord Krishna makes use of Arjuna’s
confused frame of mind to teach him the Bhagavad
Gita, which is also His advice for all of us who are
confused about our roles in life, said M.K. Srinivasan,
in a discourse.

When Arjuna drops his bow, the Lord smiles. Why

does He smile? The people Arjuna is refusing to fight
may be his relatives, but they also happen to be people
who have contributed to Arjuna’s misery. Were they
not silent spectators when Draupadi was shamed in
court? Were they not the people who had tried to force
the Pandavas out of hiding so that they could send
them back to exile again? And now when Duryodhana
is going to wage war against the Pandavas they are
with him, although he had been unjust.

They had not stood on the side of what was right,

and yet Arjuna had a soft corner for them. The Lord is
now going to make Arjuna see how wrong he is to
refuse to fight such people, and that is the reason for
His meaningful smile.