Sankhya Yoga
Chapter 2, Verse 33
atha-cet tvam imaṁ dharmyaṁ
saṅgrāmam na kariṣyasi
tataḥ sva-dharmaṁ kīrtiṁ ca
hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi
But if you do not fight this righteous battle, then you have abandoned your
duty and virtue and your glory, and you shall incur only sin.
Here Lord Krishna reminds Arjuna, “If you don’t learn to accept what God is giving you in life and run away from your duty, run away from your dharma, then you are committing a big sin.” If you don’t first accept what God is giving you to do in life, and you don’t realise your dharma, you will fail in life, and you will ‘incur only sin’.
It is because of the fear of sin that Arjuna wants to run away from fighting. But here Krishna turns it around and says, “No, My dear! You will commit sin if you run away.” First Arjuna wants to run away, fearing the sin and the guilt that will come upon him. But Krishna says, “No way, don’t do that! It will be not virtuous to do such a thing. If you run away, you will not awaken.”
Bhagavad Gita