त्वमक्षरं परमं वेदितव्यं त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम्।त्वमव्ययः शाश्वतधर्मगोप्ता सनातनस्त्वं पुरुषो मतो मे॥
tvam akṣaraṃ paramaṃ veditavyaṃtvam asya viśvasya paraṃ nidhānamtvam avyayaḥ śāśvata-dharma-goptāsanātanas tvaṃ puruṣo mato me
Word by word
The verse says
You are the imperishable, the highest thing to be known. You are the final resting place of all this. You do not pass away, you are the guardian of the lasting order — you are the eternal person. This is what I think.
In plain words
In the middle of being frightened, he states a conclusion.
Mato me — this is my view. The phrase a person uses when they are reasoning.
He is still doing philosophy while his hands shake, which is more human than it sounds.
Where you've felt this · in study
Your car breaks down on a motorway at night. While you wait for help you find yourself working out, street by street, the fastest way home from the garage in the morning. Nobody needs that information and it cannot be acted on. Some part of you keeps thinking clearly because that is what it does.
Going deeper
Thinking does not stop when fear starts, and this verse is evidence of that rather than a pause in the action.
Arjuna has just said he can barely look. Here he produces a careful theological statement, using the formula for a considered opinion. Both are true at the same moment. The mind goes on doing its work in the middle of an experience it cannot handle, and the work it produces is not necessarily wrong.
That is a more accurate picture of a person in extremity than either of the usual ones — the one where fear obliterates thought, or the one where the wise remain calm.
And it sets up what makes the next fifteen verses so uncomfortable. Everything Arjuna says while terrified is lucid. He is not raving. He is reporting accurately, which is much worse.