chapter 3

PRESENTATION OF THE THIRD CHAPTER OF THE SHRIMADBHAGAVAT GEETA

Before the war of Mahabharata, the Pandavas had lost their empire to the Kauravas. One could say that under Duryodhana's leadership, the Kauravas, with Dhritarashtra's tacit approval, had deceitfully snatched away the Pandavas' empire and their legal rights according to the prevalent laws of that time. They had gravely insulted the Pandavas' wife in the full assembly and had also attempted to kill the Pandavas through deceit. All of Sri Krishna's peace proposals had failed. Then the Pandavas were left with only the option of war. But upon reaching the battlefield, the Pandavas' foremost warrior Arjuna became despondent. The reason? When Arjuna saw his grandfather, his teacher, his family guru, his brothers and other relatives, and his friends standing on the battlefield, he became disturbed.

It's not that Arjuna was learning for the first time who were the causes of his troubles or who would fight against him in battle. But seeing all his opponents assembled together on the battlefield, he became anxious. His anxiety was not from fear of defeat. Arjuna was counted among the greatest warriors of his era and was also very learned. Therefore, the worry about the potential devastation of war and its possible consequences began to trouble him. And these very concerns weighed heavily on his mental state, causing him distress, and he decided not to fight. But it's also true that Arjuna was not completely confident in his decision, so he shared his mental state with his dearest friend Sri Krishna and sought guidance from him.

There is nothing unnatural in this entire story, nothing excessive. We all go through this same phase in life. We all become similarly confused about our circumstances. Based on our immediate knowledge, we evaluate our situations; at the same time, we consider our evaluation the best while also distrusting it. We want our friends and others to support our decisions, so we share our evaluations and decisions with them. Interestingly, theoretically we know what might be right and what might be wrong, but when we ourselves come to the practical level, our theoretical intelligence gets defeated, and to avoid difficult circumstances, we engage in sophistry to find some easy path. To make our arguments weighty, we also invoke dharma, tradition, ideals, this world and the next, sacrifice, knowledge, and martyrdom, and we want our beloved ones and friends to support our logic. We all do exactly this, and Arjuna does the same.

But Arjuna's supreme friend Sri Krishna does not support Arjuna's opinion and shows him the path that is worth following in all circumstances. If Sri Krishna had also been like Arjuna, he would have chosen one of two options. Either he would have supported Arjuna and, due to the devastation of war and its potential consequences, told him to abandon war and engage in meditation, or he would have reminded him of the atrocities committed by the Kauravas against his family lineage, his mother and wife, and provoked him, inspiring him for war. But Sri Krishna is doing none of this; instead, he begins explaining to him the path to attaining the soul and moksha on the battlefield. For a person of ordinary intelligence, Sri Krishna's behavior is not at all timely. Some might even think that Sri Krishna is showing Arjuna some easy and idealistic path to get out of war so that Arjuna might abandon the violence of war and go off to do devotional practices without the stigma of fleeing from battle. Arjuna himself falls into this same delusion. All of us who don't know what the goal of our life is think the same. Whenever we fall into trouble, we either face that trouble with a spirit of revenge or invoke the name of Ram and escape. We can only understand what we hear according to our immediate knowledge, so our first reaction cannot align with the suggestion we're receiving. If we find some path, our first reaction to that suggestion is according to our immediate knowledge.

When Sri Krishna, while explaining life's goal to Arjuna, tells him about self-realization - that is, attaining the Self - and the path to that attainment, Arjuna grasps from their conversation only that which suits his mind; that is, he becomes happy thinking that if one acquires knowledge, the work is done. We intelligent readers and listeners might also think that God also doesn't support war - He considers acquiring knowledge and attaining moksha as supreme. This happens because neither Arjuna nor all of us can pay comprehensive attention to Sri Krishna's words, but due to our prejudices, we understand Sri Krishna's teachings only according to our immediate knowledge (ignorance). This is why when, at the insistence of the distressed, despondent, confused Arjuna, Sri Krishna gives him the teaching of knowledge and explains the right path to him, Arjuna hears everything but due to his prejudices, instead of understanding those teachings comprehensively, he takes from those teachings according to his preference. Sri Krishna's teaching makes it clear that we should not do what we LIKE but should do what is RIGHT (correct/truth). But Arjuna is still stuck on LIKE. All of us, even knowing all the facts and all the truth, remain stuck on our own LIKES, so Arjuna and all of us, considering our attachment as truth, make futile attempts to justify it.

In this very background, Arjuna expresses his doubt. With Arjuna's doubt, the third chapter begins. Arjuna's mental state is not anti-war but escapist from war - that is, from his swadharma. Opposition and escape are different things. But to prove escape right, all of us and Arjuna too try to prove it right by adding logic and dharma to escape. At the end of reading, studying, and listening to the second chapter, we might feel that bondage increases through action. One action gives birth to the next desire, one wish creates another craving, which while being fulfilled gives birth to the next desire, and then action again. If this is so, then how can liberation from bondage, detachment, renunciation, and moksha be obtained? And if the ultimate goals are liberation, detachment, renunciation, and moksha, then what benefit is there in performing actions?

Although Sri Krishna has already explained that this state can only be achieved by performing actions, all of us live with an escapist mentality, so due to this prejudice of ours, we grasp at straws and keep making sophistry that our work is not to perform actions but merely to do devotional practices. Some other learned people go one step further and blame Sri Krishna himself, saying that by proving the priority of renunciation, he has turned us away from action.

Arjuna also belongs to this category. So he poses the question. Then Sri Krishna realizes that nothing has been understood by him, and then he explains his previous teaching in detail, with the result that Arjuna can understand what he needs to do only by the end of the 18th chapter.

So all of us, in this very background, enter the third chapter in the study of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. This chapter has a total of 43 verses, which we will study verse by verse as much as possible.