This war is to be a dharmic war and restore balance.

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 35

 

bhayād raṇād uparataṁ 

mansyante tvāṁ mahārathāḥ 

yeṣāṁ ca tvaṁ bahu-mato 

bhūtvā yāsyasi lāghavam

 

The mighty men will think you fled from the battle through fear, and you, whom all think highly of, will allow a stain to fall on your honour.

 

This verse is also about Arjuna’s honour, about how people will look at him. Krishna says, “‘The mighty men’: Bhima, your brothers, Bhishma, Duryodhana, Drona and many others – they all have great esteem for you. If you run away, they will have an extremely low image of you. They will be broken! They will be shocked if you run away out of fear!”

Raising the question of fear on the battlefield, Lord Krishna says, “In this state of mind, Arjuna, you are being disgraceful, because a warrior should not have fear. These people will look at you and say, ‘My goodness! Where did this fear come from?’ They will never believe that your motive in fleeing battle was to protect them. How could they know that? For them, you ran away because of cowardice. They will never know your true motive. When the other Pandavas see you sad and running away out of fear, they will be pitied by the Kauravas and will also develop compassion for them, and then this whole war will be completely different. This war is to be a dharmic war and restore balance. But there will be no dharmic war. Automatically there will be adharma.”

Bhagavad Gita