Sañjaya said: Seeing him thus afflicted, full of compassion, with eyes filled with tears and disturbed, despairing, Madhusūdana spoke these words

Sañjaya describes Arjuna with clinical precision before Kṛṣṇa speaks. The three compounds describe his state: kṛpayā āviṣṭam (possessed by compassion), aśru-pūrṇa-ākula-īkṣaṇam (eyes full of tears and disturbed/confused), viṣīdantam (desolating, sinking).

Madhusūdana (slayer of the demon Madhu) is a warrior epithet of Kṛṣṇa, ironic at the beginning of a teaching on renunciation. But Kṛṣṇa is destroyer of demons, not of ethical warriors. The name anticipates that violence is not always pāpa (sin) — it depends on context and intention.

The verse establishes the problem that the teaching must resolve: excessive compassion that paralyzes duty.