Talks on the Gita -Vinoba 4

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: ARJUNA'S DESPONDENCY 2. Arjuna’s Standpoint and Its Relation with the Genesis of the Gita 8. It is also said that the Gita is meant to make Arjuna willing to fight by removing his inclination towards non-violence. In my opinion this view also is not right. To understand this point, we have to examine Arjuna’s standpoint. The First Chapter and its extension in the Second are useful in this context. Arjuna had come to the battlefield with a firm resolve and a sense of duty. Being a kshatriya (member of the warrior varna), fighting was in his blood. Every attempt to avoid war had failed. Even though the Pandavas had pitched their claims at the minimum and Krishna Himself had tried to mediate, all that had been in vain and war had become inevitable. In these circumstances, Arjuna had brought together many kings, made Krishna his charioteer, and is now on the battle-field. He asks Krishna with heroic ardour, “Place my chariot between the two armies, so that I can have a look at the people who have assembled here to fight with me.” Krishna complies. Arjuna looks around. And what does he see? He finds his kith and kin, his near and dear ones arrayed on both the sides. He finds four generations of his own people intent on fighting to the finish. It is not that Arjuna had no idea of what he was going to see. But the actual sight, as is always the case, had a devastating impact. Seeing his kinsmen on the battlefield, Arjuna lost his nerve and deep anguish assailed his heart. In the past, he had slain innumerable warriors in many a battle, but he had never before felt so despondent, never had his bow Gandiva slipped from his hands, never had he trembled so, never had tears welled up in his eyes! Then, why all this was happening now? Was he coming to abhor violence like King Ashoka? Certainly not. It was nothing but attachment to his kith and kin. If those in front of him had not been his kinsmen, he would even now have felt no qualms in severing their heads and merrily tossing them around. But attachment to his kith and kin clouded his sense of duty, and then he started philosophising. When a man with a sense of duty is caught in delusion, he cannot face his naked lapse from duty. He tries to justify it by citing lofty principles. The same thing happened with Arjuna. He now started putting before Krishna, to convince him, the spacious argument that war in itself was sinful, that it would destroy the clan, eclipse dharma and lead to moral anarchy, scarcity and devastation, and bring many other disasters upon the society.