यदहङ्कारमाश्रित्य न योत्स्य इति मन्यसे | मिथ्यैष व्यवसायस्ते प्रकृतिस्त्वां नियोक्ष्यति ||
yad ahaṅkāram āśritya na yotsya iti manyase mithyaiṣa vyavasāyas te prakṛtis tvāṁ niyokṣyati
Translation
If, resorting to ego, you think 'I will not fight' — this resolve of yours is vain; your own nature will compel you.
Interpretation
If Arjuna's refusal to fight is based on ego — on the ego's fastidiousness, its desire to appear compassionate, its unwillingness to face the consequences of its own choices — then the resolve is vain (mithya — false, unreal). Prakriti — the accumulated nature, the deep character formed through past lives and present disposition — will compel him to fight anyway. The warrior's nature cannot be permanently overridden by a moment of ego-weakness. This is both realistic psychology and metaphysical teaching: we cannot escape our deepest nature by superficial resolve.