Arjuna speaks with the clarity that sometimes comes at the bottom of despair. I cannot see anything, he says, that could remove this grief — this grief that is drying up my very senses. Not an unrivalled kingdom on earth. Not even sovereignty over the gods themselves. Nothing external can reach this pain.
There is an honesty in these words that goes beyond the battlefield. Arjuna is describing the experience of a sorrow so deep that no material comfort can touch it. A person who has lost something irreplaceable knows this feeling — the finest meal tastes like dust, the grandest room feels hollow.
This is also, without Arjuna realizing it, the very insight that will lead to liberation. When a person understands that no outer possession can cure an inner wound, they are ready for a different kind of knowledge. Krishna's teaching begins where material solutions end.