यावदेतान्निरीक्षेऽहं योद्धुकामानवस्थितान्।कैर्मया सह योद्धव्यमस्मिन्रणसमुद्यमे॥
yāvadetān nirīkṣe ’haṃ yoddhu-kāmān avasthitānkairmayā saha yoddhavyam asmin raṇa-samudyame
Word by word
The verse says
Let me look at these men standing here, wanting to fight — the ones I must face in this work of war.
In plain words
He gives his reason: he wants to look at them.
Up to now everyone has been counting the other side. Duryodhana listed them. Bhishma roared at them. Arjuna wants something different — he wants to actually see the people.
It is the most reasonable request in the chapter, and it destroys him.
Where you've felt this · at work
Reading the name on a letter you have to deliver bad news about. The job was manageable while it was a file. The moment there is a person attached, your hands do something different.
Going deeper
The whole Gita hangs on the difference between counting people and seeing them.
Duryodhana looked at this same army for nine verses and came away with an inventory. Arjuna looks at it once and cannot stand up. The field did not change. The way of looking did.
And here is the difficulty the book has to solve. Arjuna's way of seeing is the better one. He is not being weak or sentimental; he is being accurate. Those men really are his family. Any teaching that fixed him by making him see less would be a downgrade dressed as wisdom.
So Krishna never tells Arjuna to stop seeing them as family. He goes underneath the question entirely, to what a person actually is and what part of them can be destroyed. The answer does not blur Arjuna's vision. It widens it until the field looks different from inside.