I started reading with the concrete idea of each chapter teaching a basic lesson, as in a deep metaphor having to do with how an act in life connects with a certain fate, etc. Either way, that is how I pictured this text to be. Safe to say I was clearly far from predicting its actual nature.
Bhagavad Gida starts with Sanjaya (I can’t help but imagine the American Idol contestant in his place: someone I was really not fond of, considering the only reason he made it so far in was because girls tend to have god-forbidding taste and voted him in…anyhow, back to the point: ) re-telling how Dhritarashta’s son, Duryodana went to see his teacher Drona to tell him to guard Bhishma from the Pandava army. I have yet to know where and in what time this takes place, unless the exotic, almost non-pronounceable names are any indication. Somewhere in India, perhaps?
I think we truly get the ‘first teaching’ when Krishna stops for a second, and voices his thoughts on how unnecessary it is to wage war.
“I see omens of chaos
Krishna; I see no good in
killing my kinsmen
In battle…
What joy is there for us, Krishna
In killing Dhritarashtra’s sons?
Evil will huant us if we kill them,
Though their bows are drawn to kill”
Here, he is plainly stating his lack of eagerness for the battle that is about to come. He states how there is no good reason to kill them, if the only rewards they will get for such an action is an unending-conscience and fear for upending chaos.
Then he goes on to say the following things, which I happen to find extremely deep and thoughtful in a sense:
“The greed that distorts their
Reason blinds them to the sin they commit in
Ruining the family, blinds them
To the crime of betraying friends”
He is talking about that men today don’t fight for justice or rights. Deep down, they are causing harm and blood-spill for only one reason: greed. These so-called acts on selfless bravery are all due to blunt, raw, selfish wants. And they believe that what they do is for justice, blinding themselves, unseeing to the blatant sin they are committing in the act of killing for kingship and pleasures. That simple act will end in the ‘ruining the family’ and the ‘betrayal of friends’ when they turn to do something they will regret for the rest of their lives.
He ends up slumped in grief, forever accepting that if he were to be killed by the opposing army, without putting up a fight and no weapons to protect him, it would be his reward. The reward, that would exemplify his bravery and true heart, in not giving in the to the lust and self-seeking wants, of war.
Bhagavad Gida starts with Sanjaya (I can’t help but imagine the American Idol contestant in his place: someone I was really not fond of, considering the only reason he made it so far in was because girls tend to have god-forbidding taste and voted him in…anyhow, back to the point: ) re-telling how Dhritarashta’s son, Duryodana went to see his teacher Drona to tell him to guard Bhishma from the Pandava army. I have yet to know where and in what time this takes place, unless the exotic, almost non-pronounceable names are any indication. Somewhere in India, perhaps?
I think we truly get the ‘first teaching’ when Krishna stops for a second, and voices his thoughts on how unnecessary it is to wage war.
“I see omens of chaos
Krishna; I see no good in
killing my kinsmen
In battle…
What joy is there for us, Krishna
In killing Dhritarashtra’s sons?
Evil will huant us if we kill them,
Though their bows are drawn to kill”
Here, he is plainly stating his lack of eagerness for the battle that is about to come. He states how there is no good reason to kill them, if the only rewards they will get for such an action is an unending-conscience and fear for upending chaos.
Then he goes on to say the following things, which I happen to find extremely deep and thoughtful in a sense:
“The greed that distorts their
Reason blinds them to the sin they commit in
Ruining the family, blinds them
To the crime of betraying friends”
He is talking about that men today don’t fight for justice or rights. Deep down, they are causing harm and blood-spill for only one reason: greed. These so-called acts on selfless bravery are all due to blunt, raw, selfish wants. And they believe that what they do is for justice, blinding themselves, unseeing to the blatant sin they are committing in the act of killing for kingship and pleasures. That simple act will end in the ‘ruining the family’ and the ‘betrayal of friends’ when they turn to do something they will regret for the rest of their lives.
He ends up slumped in grief, forever accepting that if he were to be killed by the opposing army, without putting up a fight and no weapons to protect him, it would be his reward. The reward, that would exemplify his bravery and true heart, in not giving in the to the lust and self-seeking wants, of war.
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