Text 5

gurun ahatva hi mahanubhavan
sreyo bhoktum bhaiksyam apiha loke
hatvartha-kamams tu gurun ihaiva
bhunjiya bhogan rudhira-pradigdhan

Translation

It would be better to live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even though desiring worldly gain, they are superiors. If they are killed, everything we enjoy will be tainted with blood. 

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada 

According to scriptural codes, a teacher who engages in an abominable action and has lost his sense of discrimination is fit to be abandoned. Bhishma and Drona were obliged to take the side of Duryodhana because of his financial assistance, although they should not have accepted such a position simply on financial considerations. Under the circumstances, they have lost the respectability of teachers. But Arjuna thinks that nevertheless they remain his superiors, and therefore to enjoy material profits after killing them would mean to enjoy spoils tainted with blood.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

"If you don't want the kingdom, then how will you live?"

"Not killing my elders, I will live by begging, though it is condemned for the ksatriya to do so. It is better to eat that food got from begging. That is, though it will bring infamy in this life, it will not be inauspicious for future lives. These gurus have not become proud. One should reject only the followers of Duryodhana who do not know right from wrong. The scriptures say:

guror apy avaliptasya karyakaryam ajanatah utpathapratipannasya parityago vidhlyate

One should reject the guru who is proud, does not know proper behavior, who becomes engaged in sinful life. Mahabharata 5.178.24

They, on the contrary, are great souls (mahanubhavan). What fault is there in Bhisma and others who have control over time and lust?"

"But Bhisma said to Yudhisthira,

arthasya puruso daso dasas tv artho na kasyacit iti satyam maharaja baddho 'smy arthena kauravaih

Man is a servant of wealth. Wealth is not a servant of anyone. O king, I have been bound by wealth to the Kauravas. Mahabharata 6.41.36

Therefore, has not their great character been destroyed by such desire for wealth?"

"That is true, but if I kill them, I will be unhappy. Though in killing those Kurus who are greedy for wealth (artha kaman), I should enjoy the wealth, it is contaminated with their blood. The meaning is this: though they have desire for wealth, they are still my gurus. Therefore in killing them, because I commit the sin of killing guru, my enjoyment will be mixed with that sin."