Bhagavad Gita · Arjuna Vishada YogaChapter 1, Shloka 27 (1.27)

"Senayor ubhayor api" — in both armies. These three words are the centre of Arjuna's crisis. Arjuna saw his own people not only in the Kaurava army — but in his own army too. Drupada (his father-in-law), Draupadi's sons, Abhimanyu — all of them too will die in the war. Whichever way the war goes, the loss will be of his own people. This is the foundation of Arjuna's arguments that follow (1.31–1.46).

"Śvaśurān" — fathers-in-law. Arjuna's father-in-law Drupada was on the Pandava side. On the Kaurava side too there were kings connected by marriage. Relationships formed through marriage had tangled the two sides together even more.

"Suhṛdaḥ" — well-wishers. Su-hṛd — "one with a good heart". People who once did him a kindness — helped him, stood by him. Now they too are in front of him.

"Samīkṣya" — looking closely. Earlier (1.26) it was "apaśyat" — he saw. Now "samīkṣya" — sam (thoroughly) + īkṣ (to see) — a deep, lingering gaze. Pausing on each face, one by one.

"Kaunteya" — son of Kunti. Here Sanjaya calls Arjuna by his mother's name. Kunti — who raised the Pandavas alone, to whom this family was most familiar. The choice of this name brings a tender feeling — not the warrior "Partha" or "Dhananjaya", but a mother's son. (Madhusudana reads a different hint in this name, based on his era's notion of the nature of women — see the note on 1.25. Our interpretation differs and is our own.)

"Sarvān bandhūn" — all kinsmen. In the end everyone is gathered into one word — bandhu, one's own people. Father, teacher, brother, father-in-law — all "kin". The difference between enemy and friend has vanished.