This shloka begins the clear movement from śokaḥ [sorrow] to mohaḥ [confusion or delusion].

Until now, Arjuna’s problem was mainly grief. He saw Bhīṣma, Droṇa, relatives, teachers, and friends. Attachment produced sorrow. His body trembled, his mouth dried, Gāṇḍīva slipped, and his mind reeled.

Now the next symptom appears: mohaḥ [confusion or delusion]. In mohaḥ [confusion or delusion], the intellect becomes clouded. What is dharma begins to look like adharma, and what is adharma begins to look like dharma.

Arjuna says, nihatya dhārtarāṣṭrān naḥ kā prītiḥ syāt — “What joy can there be for us by killing the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra?” The word dhārtarāṣṭrān refers to the Kauravas, the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra. Earlier, Arjuna had known very well that Duryodhana and his side were standing for adharma. They had committed many wrongs. The war had not been chosen suddenly or casually. The Pāṇḍavas had thought about it for years. They had tried peaceful methods. Only when those methods failed did they accept war as a painful but necessary dharmic duty.

But now Arjuna forgets that clarity.

He asks, “What joy will we get?” This shows that his mind has shifted the frame. Instead of asking, “What does dharma require?” he is asking, “What happiness will come to us?” The issue is no longer being viewed as dharma versus adharma. It is being viewed as personal emotional outcome.

Then Arjuna says, pāpam eva āśrayet asmān — “sin alone will come to us.” This is the key error. He thinks that by fighting this war, he will incur pāpam [sin]. But in this context, the war is a dharma-yuddha [righteous war]. For a kṣatriya, punishing adharma is not pāpam [sin]. It is duty.

The greatest irony is in the last word: ātatāyinaḥ. Arjuna himself calls them ātatāyinaḥ — aggressors, criminals, grave wrongdoers. Dharma-śāstra gives a technical meaning to this word. An ātatāyī is one who commits grave acts such as burning another’s house, poisoning, attacking a defenseless person with weapons, stealing property or land, or taking another’s wife. Duryodhana and his side had done such acts: they tried to burn the Pāṇḍavas in the lac house, poisoned Bhīma, stole their kingdom, and dishonored Draupadī.

So Arjuna is not saying, “These people are innocent.” He knows they are ātatāyinaḥ [criminal aggressors]. But still he says, “By killing these ātatāyinaḥ, pāpam alone will come to us.”

That is the beginning of mohaḥ [confusion or delusion].

It is like a judge saying, “If I punish a criminal, I will get sin.” That is confusion. A judge does not incur sin by giving a lawful and appropriate punishment. That is the duty of the role. In the same way, Arjuna as a kṣatriya has the duty to stand against adharma. If he gives up that duty, that itself becomes wrong.

Arjuna sees puṇyam [merit or right action] as pāpam [sin], and pāpam [sin or wrong action] as puṇyam [merit or right action]. Fighting the dharma-yuddha looks sinful to him. Running away from the dharma-yuddha begins to look noble.

This is not wisdom. This is dharma-adharma-avivekaḥ [confusion between right and wrong]. The mind weakened by rāgaḥ [attachment] and śokaḥ [sorrow] has now pulled the intellect into its confusion.

The shloka teaches that sorrow does not stop with emotion. If not corrected, sorrow can enter the intellect and begin to produce wrong conclusions. At that stage, the person may speak beautifully, morally, and even spiritually — but the conclusion may still be wrong because it is rooted in attachment.