The Yoga of Arjuna's Despair

We use abstraction to make harmful actions bearable: 'Workforce reduction' instead of 'firing Sarah.' 'Collateral damage' instead of 'killing teachers.' 'Resource allocation' instead of 'denying Grandfather treatment.' The abstractions aren't just descriptive—they're moral distancing (vikṣepa). They make it possible to do things that, seen specifically, we'd recognize as harmful. The verse teaches: abstraction facilitates harm. When we turn people into categories (enemies, obstacles, problems), we can harm them. When we see them as ācāryāḥ pitaraḥ putrāḥ—specific people with roles and histories—harming them becomes recognizably harming us.