guroonahatvaa hi mahaanubhaavaan shreyo bhoktum bhaikshyamapeeha loke |
hatvaarthakaamaamstu guroonohaiva bhunjeeya bhoogaanrudhirapradigdhaan || 5 ||

I will not kill my revered teachers, because in this world, I would prefer to partake of food received through alms, rather than enjoy the blood-stained worldy pleasures derived from killing my teachers.

guroon : teacher
ahatvaa : not kill
hi : because
mahaanubhaava : respected, revered
shreyaha : better
bhoktum : partake
bhaikshyam : donated food
api : even
iha : this
loke : world

hatvaa: kill
artha-kaamaan : worldly pleasures
tu : then
eva : only
bhunjeeya : partake
bhoogaan : enjoyments
rudhira-pradigdhaan : blood-stained

This verse and the next few verses may seem similar to the ones we saw in the last chapter, but upon closer inspection, there are subtle differences. Arjuna’s panic attack has ended, and his emotional state has become somewhat normal. The change in Arjuna’s attitude is also indicated by the change in meter – we notice that this shloka, and some of the forthcoming shlokas, have a longer meter.

What remains, though, is a tinge of the victim attitude, indicated in the statement that he would prefer begging to hurting his teachers. But what is positive here is that Arjuna is slowly opening up to logical reasoning, since he is no longer under the influence of the panic attack, and his agitations have subsided.

The lesson here is that we cannot have a sane conversation with someone in a charged emotional state, their mind has to calm down somewhat in order to create room for logic.

In this shloka, Arjuna is still holding on to the position that he will definitely not kill his kinsmen. But as his emotional state calms down, we shall see him begin to question that position.