Bhagavad-Gita

in chapter 1arjuna became despondent to fight. what led to his despondency and how did this alter his relationship with krishna

in chapter i arjuna became despondent to fight. what led to his despondency and how did it alter his relationship with krishna

 

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The opening of the Bhagavad Gita can be intimidating because of the sheer number of names and terms that come out of Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra that will be unfamiliar to those not well-versed in Hinduism. But the new reader should see the first chapter merely as historical context for what is to follow, which is essentially a two-person conversation about philosophy and yogic principles, as opposed to a treatise of battle, which the first chapter seems to lay out. Indeed, all we really need to understand in this first chapter is the background of the conflict -- that Arjuna must avenge Dhritarashtra's passing of the kingdom to his own son, rather than to Arjuna's brother Yudhishthira, the rightful king -- and the nature of Arjuna's inner turmoil over the fact he must kill his own family members.

Krishna tells Arjuna that his dharma in this life is to be a warrior and rightfully fight against Duryodhana for the kingdom so that he may restore good -- his karma requires this grand staging of good vs. evil to right the balance. It is not his duty to see myopically, to simply see the boundaries of life and death, but rather to live beyond results and in the larger cycle of samsara, or the karmic circle.

Arjuna asks Krishna what a man who is freed from mundane concerns is like, what a wise man does in life on a daily basis. It is a truly wonderful question, for it hits at why most laymen are afraid of pursuing a spiritual path -- namely the idea that they have to give up the world in order to find peace. Arjuna says that such a man lives in the world, but simply has no concern for results. He finds peace in the work, peace in the universe, because he has found himself. There is no such thing as good or bad, there is no such

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