Bhagavadgita -Radhakrishnan 64

The Bhagavadgita -S. Radhakrishnan

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CHAPTER 1
The Hesitation and Despondency of Arjuna


The Gita does not each a mysticism that concerns itself with man's inner being done. Instead of rejecting the duties and relationships of life an illusion, it accepts them as opportunities for the realization )f spiritual freedom. Life is offered to us that we may transfigure completely.The battlefield is called dharmaksetra or the field of righteousless for the Lord who is the protector of dharma is actively-resent in it. kuruksetre: in the field of the Kurus. Kuruketra is the land if the Kurus, a leading clan of the period.[1]

The words, "dharmaketre kuruksetre," suggest the law of life by death. God, the terrible, is a side of the vision that Arjuna ;ees on the field of battle. Life is a battle, a warfare against the spirit of evil. Creative process is one of perpetual tension between wo incompatibles, each standing against the other. By their nutual conflict, the development is advanced and the cosmic purpose furthered. In this world are elements of imperfection,evil and irrationality, and through action, dharma, we have to change the world and convert the elements, which are now opaque to reason, transparent to thought. War is a retribution judgment as well as an act of discipline. Kuruksetra is also called tapahksetra, the field of penance, of discipline.[2]


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References and Context

  1. ↑ It is a vast field near Hastinapura in the neighbourhood of nodern Delhi. When Dhrtarastra, the blind king of the Kurus, decided to give his throne to Yudhisthira, who is also known as Dharmaraja, the embodiment of virtue, in preference to his own eldest son, Duryodhana, the latter, by tricks and treachery, secured the throne for himself and attempted to destroy Yudhisthira and his four brothers. Krsna, the head of the Yadava clan, sought to bring about a reconciliation between the cousins. When all attempts failed, a fratricidal war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas became inevitable. Krsna proposed that he and his vassals would join the two sides and left the choice to the parties. The vassals were selected by Duryodhana and Krsna himself joined the Pandavas as the chanoteer of Arjuna. M.B., Udyogaparva: VI, 147. "Some put their trusts in chariots and some in horses but we will trust in the Lord, our God," as the old Testament says. The Pandavas and the Kauravas represent the conflict between the two great movements, the upward and the downward, the divine and the demoniac, the dharma which helps us to grow in our spiritual stature and the adharma which drags us down deeper into entanglement with matter. The two are not irreconcilable as they spring from the same source. The Pandavas and the Kauravas are cousins and have a common ancestry.
  2. ↑ See Manu, II, 19 and 20.