Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Now he will express the resolution. He will say what is the alternative for me? If I will stop fighting what will happen they are not going to stop fighting, OK I will die I will die without fighting but I will not fight.

Bg 1.45

yadi mām apratīkāram
aśastraṁ śastra-pāṇayaḥ
dhārtarāṣṭrā raṇe hanyus
tan me kṣema-taraṁ bhavet

Word for word: 

yadi — even if; mām — me; apratīkāram — without being resistant; aśastram — without being fully equipped;śastra–pāṇayaḥ — those with weapons in hand; dhārtarāṣṭrāḥ — the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra; raṇe — on the battlefield; hanyuḥ — may kill; tat — that; me — for me; kṣema–taram — better; bhavet — would be.

Translation: 

Better for me if the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, weapons in hand, were to kill me unarmed and unresisting on the battlefield.

yadi mām apratīkāram, that if I don’t do any pratikar, means reaction, if they attack I will not respond to their attacks, not only I will not react to their attacks but I will put down my weapons also aśastraṁ śastra-pāṇayaḥ, normally two warriors will not fight with each other unless they are equipped, that is the normal Kshetriya code. So when Kuran talks about Jihad, actually there is holy war and unholy war. War that is meant for protecting ones religion is holy and war that is for personal aggrandizement or war that is non-essential is considered non-holy. So terrorism that Jihad is doing is completely against the idea of holy war. Normally when Kshetriyas fight they have to be equal, equipped and alert, e.g. chariot warrior should not fight with the foot soldiers Or the person is looking somewhere and you shoot arrow, etc., so terrorism is the exact opposite of that, the victims of terrorists are not equal not equipped and not alert, so it is completely unholy, it is ghastly, it is terrible ugra karma. 

So Arjuna is saying I will give up the weapon and they have the weapon, I will be slaughtered but that is just for one life time I will suffer little bit when I will die, but at least I will avoid sin. As I have avoided sin I will not suffer for a long-long time. So tan me kṣema-taraṁ bhavet, I think this is better for me and he said I will not fight and that is his resolution, which is the conclusion of the last verse of this chapter.

End of transcription.