तस्मान्नार्हा वयं हन्तुं धार्तराष्ट्रान्स्वबान्धवान्।स्वजनं हि कथं हत्वा सुखिनः स्याम माधव॥
tasmān nārhā vayaṃ hantuṃ dhārtarāṣṭrān sa-bāndhavānsva-janaṃ hi kathaṃ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava
Word by word
The verse says
So we ought not to kill Dhritarashtra's sons, our own kinsmen. How could we be happy, Krishna, after killing our own people?
In plain words
He concludes, and then immediately re-opens the question.
So we ought not - that is a conclusion. Then straight after it: how could we be happy? He is checking his own answer in the same breath as giving it.
And he asks the question to Krishna, not to himself. He wants someone else to confirm it.
Where you've felt this · in friendship
You finish explaining to your friend why you are leaving the job, and you end with "right?" You are not asking him for information. You want him to close a gap you can still feel underneath your own explanation.
Going deeper
The question mark is the tell.
A man settled in his position does not finish it with an appeal. Arjuna has been talking for ten verses and he keeps turning to Krishna, who has said one sentence this entire chapter and is not going to say another.
It is worth registering how much Krishna's silence is doing. He drove the chariot where he was asked. He said behold these Kurus. Since then, nothing. Arjuna is arguing into that silence, and the longer it goes the more clearly you can hear that he is arguing with himself.
Happiness is also the wrong measure, and that will matter. Arjuna asks how they could be happy afterwards. Krishna's teaching does not run on happiness; it runs on what is yours to do and what is not. The word Arjuna reaches for shows how far he still is from the frame he is about to be given.