“Karpan near Dosho Chhatra Sabha” The word used here is Kripna, from Kripna comes karpanya. What is Kripna? Kripna means misers. And who is a miser? It is explained in Garg Samhita. “yoga Etag Aksharam Gargi Avida a small low carb priority Sakri”   

          All those beings who have no knowledge of this science of self-knowledge and who die in this world as just cats and dogs. Such a person who caters to the demands of material, mind and body is called a miser. So, such a person who is a miser or miserable does not do spiritual inquiry; a miser is so called, because he does not know how to utilize the assets. He could be, if realized, quite a rich man, but he would be living quite a poor life at the human level of self-realization. A person can solve all the problems of life, but if he does not do self-realization, then he has wasted this very rich asset, the human form of life, and so he is called a miser. They might not be able to have spiritual inquiry due to material affection and family attachments, as such misers.

          We are all just travellers. Imagine on a long journey we are sitting in a restaurant along with some strangers and we spend all our money taking care of such strangers and all our love and affection. We show it on them. So, such an act is not very wise, because all of us after all will move to our destination. We are never going to meet. Such is the case in material world again. We are all travellers. And we, through bodies of different kinds travelling from life to life finally converge in this world, and we meet in this infinite pilgrimage in groups of family.

          So as long as you spend all the time with family members natural objects of affection. But if a person is very affectionate then he has attachment to anything in this material world, whether it is people, objects or places. Then he will be entangled in the cycle of birth and death. At the same time, Arjuna is unable to wage war, which is his duty because his family members are standing on the other side. Thus, Arjuna is aware of the fact that this is karpanya dosa. This is miserly weakness. Due to this secret feeling of family affection, I am not able to do my duty and only when a person does his duty very nicely, does this question of (self) realization arise.

          Another significant word employed in this verse is ‘Shadi Mam Kwam prapancham’. So, when such complexities arise in life Arjuna is a very successful person, a very strong person. He has no actual dirt in his life. But still he is perplexed. Thus, no matter how successful we become in our material life, there are perplexities coming in life and the answer is in surrender. ‘prapate Diante Shadiman swam, prapancham.’ One must surrender to Krishna or Krishna’s representative, called guru or spiritual master. It is only when completely surrendered to a guru that there is no question of solving the problems of life. First surrender, of course, is not blind. Similar to one with intelligence, we go look for a very good doctor and then resign to that doctor. Doctor, please saw open my heart. And you please cure my illness. Even if the doctor is willing, unless such absolute surrender is there, the doctor will not be able to help. In a similar fashion.

          There is no solution to the problems of life, unless we completely surrender to a spiritual master. We should use discretion and realize who a bona fide spiritual master is. We need to surrender only after we can expect to win.