Quote from Eknath Easwaran's Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita: Translated for the Modern Reader

by Eknath Easwaran

Nilgiri Press, Berkeley, California, 1996          246 pages

Sri Krishna consoles and instructs Prince Arjuna as he is about to go into battle against family and friends to defend his older brother's claim to the ancient throne of Kurus. Thus the great scripture called Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of the Lord," begins. Sri Krishna is Bhagavan, "the Lord," the mysterious incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the aspect of God who fosters and preserves the universe against the forces constantly working to destroy and corrupt it. Krishna has appeared on earth as a royal prince of the house of the Yadavas; thus he combines earthly majesty with a hidden spiritual power. Ordinary men know him only as an unimportant prince, but the wise have seen him reveal his power to destroy evil and protect the good.

The battle of the Bhagavad Gita is not Krishna's fight, however; it is Arjuna's. Krishna is only Arjuna's charioteer and advisor. He has promised Arjuna that he will be with him throughout the ordeal, but much as he passionately hopes for Arjuna's victory, he has sworn to be a noncombatant in the struggle. A charioteer's position is a lowly one compared to the status and glory of the warrior he drives, but Krishna assumes this modest role out of love for Arjuna. As charioteer, he is in a perfect position to give advice and encouragement to Arjuna without violating his promise not to join the fight himself.  (p. 47)

. . . Yet the first chapter has caused a great deal of debate, largely because of what it has to say about the morality of war. Basically there have been two points of view, which are almost (but perhaps not completely) irreconcilable. First, there is the orthodox Hindu's viewpoint that the Gita condones war for the warrior class: it is the dharma, the moral duty, of soldiers to fight in a good cause, though never for evil leaders. (It should be added that this is part of an elaborate and highly chivalrous code prescribing the just rules of war.) According to this orthodox view, the lesson of the Mahabharata (and therefore of the Gita) is that although war is evil, it is an evil that cannot be avoided--an evil both tragic and honorable for the warrior himself. War in a just cause, justly waged, is also in accord with the divine will. Because of this, in the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira and his noble brothers find their peace in the next world when they have finished their duty on earth.

The mystics' point of view is more subtle. For them the battle is an allegory, a cosmic struggle between good and evil. Krishna has revealed himself on earth to re-establish spiritual well-being, and he is asking Arjuna to engage in a spiritual struggle, not a worldly one. According to this interpretation, Arjuna is asked not to fight his kith and kind but his own lower self. Mahatma Gandhi, who based his daily life on the Gita from his twenties on, felt it would be impossible to live the kind of life taught in the Gita and still engage in violence. To argue that the Gita condones violence, he said, was to give importance only to its opening verses--its preface, so to speak--and ignore the scripture itself.

For some, it helps clarify this question to look upon the Gita as an Upanishad, a mystical statement from the Vedas, that was incorporated into the warrior epic of a later age. Chapter 1 of the Gita then forms a rather perilous bridge between the warrior's world and the really important part of the Gita--Sri Krishna's revelations of spiritual truth.  (pp. 75-76)

-- quote submitted by Jennifer K.

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