Kṛṣṇa hits Arjuna where it hurts most: his pride and his honor. He says that people will speak of his infamy forever. For a respectable man, dishonor is considered worse than death itself. Arjuna is a legendary hero whose fame spans the world. If he leaves the battlefield now, history will not record his misplaced compassion; it will record that the great Arjuna fled in fear. Kṛṣṇa warns him that living with such a stain on his character will be far more painful than any wound he might receive in battle. He is appealing to Arjuna’s warrior ego to snap him out of his despondency. He wants Arjuna to realize that the ‘saintly’ path he is trying to take will lead only to permanent social disgrace, which a man of his stature should find intolerable.