Bhagavad Gita Focuses on a Conversation Between Arjuna and Krishna

The Bhagavad Gita is a sacred text that teaches the world how to live without consequences. We live in a world where we attach ourselves, to this world, through our impulse of wanting more and more, thus, making us selfish. Due to all this, we remain chained to the cycle of birth and death, not knowing our true purpose in life. Bhagavad Gita showed us how a human being can perform their duty in this world without being selfish; thus, freeing us from the actions that our consequences might have.

Bhagavad Gita focuses on a conversation between Arjuna, the prince, and the lord, Krishna. Arjuna is confused about the war and confides on Krishna to help guide him. Krishna teaches Arjuna how to be free from attachments, to be steady in the midst of both success and defeat and how to be free from selfishness and aversions. Arjuna views the war as pointless. He does not understand why there is a need to have a war against the Kauravas. He especially does not understand why he has to kill people out of greed for power; Nonetheless, he thinks that killing someone is evil, especially his loved ones because it is not justified. Ultimately, he believes that all this could lead to chaos. Therefore, he confides in Krishna and explains to him that he is against participating in the war. However, Krishna thinks otherwise. He thinks that he should fight; therefore, he explains to him why he must fight. He thinks that as a warrior, his duty is to follow a dharma because if he avoids the battle, he would violate his dharma and his honor, thus, committing sin. Although, Arjuna views killing someone as evil and sinful, Krishna sees it as death being just simply one of the ways to get to heaven, so in her view, death is not bad because the people who have died already enjoyed the victory of living on earth. In other words, war is not evil since you can’t kill what will be reincarnated. I personally agree with both up to point. I find killing a sinful action, but at the same time, what would be evil and selfish would be abandoning my duties.

When I first started reading the book, I noticed that Arjuna character was demonstrated as unsure of the role he played, but aside from that, he was a warrior, brave, and willing to learn. Krishna was described as compassionate and understanding; thus, Krishna was his mentor that helped him build up his character and demonstrate to him why he is important and why he should not let certain things affect him. All throughout the book, Krishna gave Arjuna advice such as how to detached from the material world because actions and ego has consequences. Krishna was a guide and teacher to Arjuna, therefore, Arjuna realized that Krishna advice were not only advice to himself, but also advice to everyone because the message he was trying to give to Arjuna was very deep and meaningful. They have real life concerns, doubts, issues that many of us can relate to.

Krishna represents the divine of the humans. The role of Krishna is to fight evil, enhance the spiritual evolution of mankind, and introduce a bhakti. “I am self Arjuna, seated in the heart of all beings…of the sky gods, I am Vishnu…I am the divine seed…could exist for a moment without me” [10.36-40], that quote demonstrates the true form of Krishna, which is that he is a Vishnu in a human form and has been incarnated on earth because human integrity has decreased.

The cycle of rebirth is important to the Hindu religion and philosophy of Gita. They believe that mortals and humans are sent back to earth again over and over in the form of Prakriti. They are reborn over and over again up until they can find their dharma, thus releasing them from karma. They believe that the path of yoga is the right path because it frees people from pain maliciousness. The readers whose religion or philosophy do not include reincarnation can still apply the principles of the book to their own life because I think the whole point of yoga is to release yourself from the outside factors that contribute to negative energy such as, self attachments and aversions. This whole book is basically a life lesson that you can use in your everyday life. People could use this text and apply them to their life because it is a reminder of how they should act and to not be so attached to the world, whether it is good or bad. What I got from this text is that I have to live a simple life and be free from self aggressiveness, arrogance and anger because if I do, I will overcome all difficulties. That being said, I learned that outside factors can affect me in a negative manner, therefore I need to learn to overcome them, such as not letting any negative force interfere with my decisions or choices.

In conclusion, Bhagavad Gita was trying to teach us that there is a purpose in life. Hence, we should live a unique way of life that eases off tension. In other words, a happy life. However, they believe that the way we can accomplish that is through Gita and if we live by those rules, we will be free from sin. Aside from that, what I am in taking from this book is that we should all try to live a non selfish life because we will be a lot happier if that happens.

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