Prabhupada 0269 - By Rascal Interpretation you Cannot Understand Bhagavad-gita
Lecture on BG 2.10 -- London, August 16, 1973
So try to understand Kṛṣṇa as Hṛṣīkeśa. So Hṛṣīkeśa, Kṛṣṇa, began to laugh that "He is My friend, constant associate, and such weakness. He first of all was enthusiastic to ask Me to take his chariot, senayor ubhayor madhye (BG 2.10). Now viṣīdantan, now he is lamenting." So... We are all fools like that. Arjuna is not fool. Arjuna has been been described as Guḍākeśa. How he can be fool? But he is playing the part of fool. If he does not play the part of a fool, how this Bhagavad-gītā will come from the mouth of Śrī Kṛṣṇa? And because he is devotee, he is perfectly playing in such a way that Kṛṣṇa is giving instruction. So perfect teacher and the perfect disciple, Arjuna. We have to learn from their de... Our position... Arjuna is representing just like ordinary man like us, and Kṛṣṇa is Hṛṣīkeśa, giving His advice, perfect advice. If we take, if we read Bhagavad-gītā in the spirit of understanding like Arjuna, the perfect disciple, and if we accept the advice and the instruction of Kṛṣṇa, the perfect teacher, then we should know that we have understood Bhagavad-gītā. By my mental speculation, by rascal interpretation, by showing one's scholarship, you cannot understand Bhagavad-gītā. That is not possible. Submissive. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (BG 4.34). So we have to surrender as Arjuna, he surrendered. Śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ prapannam: (BG 2.7) "I surrender unto You. I become Your disciple." To become disciple means to surrender, voluntarily accepting the instruction, the advice, the order of the spiritual master. So Arjuna has already accepted that. Although he is speaking that na yotsye, "Kṛṣṇa, I shall not fight." But master, when He explains everything, he will fight. Master's order. Not to fight, that is his own sense gratification. And to fight in spite of he had no desire to fight, that is the satisfaction of the master. This is the sum and substance of Bhagavad-gītā.
So Kṛṣṇa, seeing Arjuna, viṣīdantam very much affected, lamenting, that he is not prepared to do his duty. Therefore in the next verse He begins that aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajña-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase: (BG 2.11) "My dear Arjuna, you are My friend. Never mind, māyā is very strong. Despite your being My friend, personal, you are so much overwhelmed with false compassion. So just hear Me." Therefore He said, aśocyān: "You are lamenting on a subject matter which is not at all good." Aśocya. Śocya means lamentation, and aśocya means one should not lament. Aśocya. So aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajña-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase. "But you are talking like very learned scholar." Because he has talked. But those things are right. What Arjuna has said, that varṇa-saṅkara, when the women become polluted, the population is varṇa-saṅkara, that is fact. Whatever Arjuna has said to Kṛṣṇa in order to avoid the fighting, so those things are correct. But from the spiritual platform, those things may be correct or incorrect, but from spiritual platform, they are not to be considered very serious. Therefore aśocyān anvaśocas tvam. Because his lamentation was on the bodily concept of life. That bodily concept of life, in the very beginning of Kṛṣṇa's instructions, it is condemned. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvam: (BG 2.11) "You are lamenting on the bodily concept of life." Because anyone who is in the bodily concept of life, he is no better than animal.