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Arjuna said If Thou thinkest that knowledge is superior to action, O Krishna, why then, O Kesava, dost Thou ask me to engage in this terrible action?

Arjuna said: Janardana, if you hold that understanding is better than action, then why, Keshava, do you urge me into this terrible deed?

The third chapter opens with Arjuna's confusion over what he heard in the second. Krishna praised steady understanding (buddhi) and spoke of rising above the fruits of action (karma). Arjuna takes this to mean that knowledge is superior to action, and so he asks why he is being pushed into a dreadful act of war. The question is honest and important. It sets the theme of the whole chapter: how understanding and action relate, and whether a wise person should act at all.