So Arjuna’s position is very precarious. There is a Bengali proverb naste bose bhunkata.(?) A girl, he, she is very famous dancing girl. So it is the system… As we have introduced, the girls and ladies, they have their veil, gunthana. It is called gunthana in Indian language. So a dancing girl, when she was on the stage, she saw that so many of her relatives are there as visitors. So she began to draw the veil. So this is not required. You are a dancing girl. Now you have to dance. You cannot be shy. You must freely dance. That is your duty.

So Arjuna […] The sva-dharma, the principle is a ksatriya’s duty to fight, is to kill in fight. If you are in fight, you become sympathetic, then the same example: the dancing girl, when on the stage, if she is shy, it is like that. Why she should be shy? She must dance freely. That will be credit.

So in the warfield, you cannot be compassionate. That is not required.

Bhagavad-gita 2.36-37 — London, September 4, 1973