Arjuna asks
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 2.4“How can I aim arrows in battle against Bhīṣma and Droṇa, who are worthy of reverence?”
Praśna No. 8
He even says
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 2.5“It is better even to live on a beggar's fare… than to slay these most venerable teachers.”
The whole Gītā is Kṛṣṇa's answer.
Across the field stand Arjuna’s grandfather and his teacher. He would rather beg than face them. Seven hundred verses follow, and all of them answer this one hard family question.
Ask the Gītā your own question.
Arjuna asked his. Samvāda answers yours with the Gītā's own verses.
Samvāda is software, an AI companion tuned to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is not a person. It answers from the verse and shows you which one, and it never pretends to be Kṛṣṇa.
The verses
Arjuna asks
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 2.4अर्जुन उवाच
कथं भीष्ममहं संख्ये द्रोणं च मधुसूदन।
इषुभिः प्रतियोत्स्यामि पूजार्हावरिसूदन।।
arjuna uvāca kathaṁ bhīṣmam ahaṁ sankhye droṇaṁ ca madhusūdana iṣubhiḥ pratiyotsyāmi pūjārhāvari-sūdana
Arjuna said, "O slayer of foes, how can I aim arrows in battle against Bhisma and Drona, who are worthy of reverence?"
Arjuna continues
BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ · 2.5गुरूनहत्वा हि महानुभावान्
श्रेयो भोक्तुं भैक्ष्यमपीह लोके।
हत्वार्थकामांस्तु गुरूनिहैव
भुञ्जीय भोगान् रुधिरप्रदिग्धान्।।
gurūnahatvā hi mahānubhāvān śreyo bhoktuṁ bhaikṣyamapīha loke hatvārtha-kāmāṁstu gurūnihaiva bhuñjīya bhogān rudhira-pradigdhān
It is better even to live on a beggar's fare in this world than to slay these most venerable teachers. If I were to slay my teachers, though they may be degraded by desire for wealth, I would only be enjoying blood-stained pleasures here.
The count
2.4 is verse 51 of 700, and verse 4 of 72 in chapter 2.
2.4 and 2.5 both fall under the speaker label of Arjuna.
Bhīṣma, in any form, appears in 7 verses of the 700, first at 1.8 and last at 11.34.
Counted by Vāṇi on the 700-verse text at getvani.app/gita.
Going deeper
These verses come at the start of the Gītā's teaching, before Kṛṣṇa has taught anything. In 2.3 Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna not to give in to weakness and to rise. 2.4 is Arjuna's reply, and it is about family: how can he aim arrows in battle at Bhīṣma and Droṇa, who deserve reverence? 2.5 goes further. He says it is better to live on a beggar's fare than to kill these teachers, because the pleasures he would enjoy afterwards would be stained with blood. 2.6 admits he does not even know which outcome is better for them, winning or losing. Arjuna is not weak in these lines. He is honest about the cost, and what he describes is the choice many people face when duty and family point in opposite directions. The rest of chapter 2 is the beginning of Kṛṣṇa's answer, and what the Gītā says about dharma gathers more of it.