विषाद

Viṣāda (विषाद) means a sinking of the mind, a state of dejection and agitation in which the limbs and the power to decide go slack. In the Gita the word is used of Arjuna's state when, seeing his own people in both armies, he begins to tremble. Verse 1.28 describes him as overcome with compassion and sinking, in 1.47 he casts aside his bow and sits down, distressed with grief, and in 2.1 and 2.10 Lord Krishna speaks to the Arjuna who is in this despondency. For this reason the tradition names the first chapter the Yoga of Arjuna's Despondency.

The word differs somewhat from sorrow. Sorrow is the pain of an event. Viṣāda is the condition in which that pain grows so deep that a person cannot even tell what should be done now.

Common misreading: taking viṣāda to be only sadness or a flaw of character.

Better sense: viṣāda is a turning point, from which the roads can go two ways: more entanglement in arguments and silence, or a turn toward an honest question, as Arjuna does in 2.7. It is not a clinical diagnosis.

To read more, see the topic Arjuna's Despondency.