Bhagavat Gita - 1

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Bhagavat Gita - 1

 

The Bhagavat Gita is one of the most popular texts. Next to the Bible

it is the most widely translated of scriptural texts. This tremendous appeal

of the Gita is because it deals with a practical problem of life, namely,

how a man can discharge his duties as the member of an imperfect social

order and at the same time attain the highest degree of perfection. The Gita

begins with this ethical problem and in solving this problem, a noble

devotional philosophy is expounded.

 

This problem is graphically depicted at the outset through the predicament

of Arjuna. Arjuna is the leader of the Pandava host, and his whole life has

been a preparation to meet his cousins, the Kauravas, in battle, defeat

them, and wrest from them the kingdom that they had usurped from himself

and his brothers. The scene is cast in the battlefield of Kurukshetra,

where the armies of both the sides have gathered and Arjuna is called upon

to fulfil his historic mission by leading his men against the Kauravas.

Arjuna realises at this critical moment that it is a fratricidal war, and

that its consequence will be the destruction of the very friends and

relatives for the sake of whom men usually seek wealth and kingdom, as

well as social chaos consequent on the holocaust of the flower of Kaurava

and Pandava chivalry. A war-weariness and a world-weariness together come

upon him with a dramatic suddenness. Under their impact he forgets all his

social and family obligations, and wants to take to an ascetic life instead

of indulging in what he conceives to be a senseless carnage under the guise

of duty. He becomes a pacifist and a quietist all of a sudden.

 

The conflict here is between a sudden and purely personal inclination

bursting in one's mind and a social duty, the avoidance of which under

that inclination would have meant ruin to a whole community that had laid

its trust in one. Sri Krishna, though God incarnate, is Arjuna's close

friend, charioteer and spiritual counsellor, and is called upon to resolve

the conflict in Arjuna's mind and restore him to a sense of moral

equilibrium by finding a new sanction for action.

 

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