Though pitiable, it is indeed pleasantly ludicrous to watch Arjuna’s intellectual exhaustion and emotional weariness as expressed in this verse. In his effeminate lack of self-confidence here he bemoans, “Alas! We are involved, etc.” These words clearly show that instead of becoming a master of the situation, Arjuna is now a victim of it. He has not the virile confidence that he is the master of the circumstances and, therefore, with a creeping sense of growing inner cowardice, he feels almost helplessly persecuted.

This unhealthy mental weakness drains off his heroism and he desperately tries to put a paper-crown upon his cowardice, to make it look divine and angelic, and to parade it as ‘pity’. Thus, he deliberately misconstrues the very aim of the war and imputes a low motive to the righteous war simply because he wants to justify his pacifist idea, which does not instinctively gurgle out from his known strength, but which oozes out from his ulcerated mind.

Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.