While traveling in the West and lecturing on the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most common questions asked by peace loving Western students is, “Why is Krishna preaching and almost forcing Arjuna to take up weapons against his own kinsmen while Arjuna shows no interest in it and argues against the ghastly warfare and its irreligious and immoral outcome?”
They assume Krishna to be a warmonger and Arjuna a champion of peace—a compassionate and kind-hearted dude. Indeed, anyone who gives a cursory reading to the first chapter of the Gita sympathizes with Arjuna and is puzzled with Krishna’s preaching to Arjuna to stand up and fight. Even Mahatma Gandhi, an ardent lover of the Gita, could not digest Krishna’s instruction to Arjuna to fight, and thus commented that the whole plot of the Bhagavad Gita is allegorical. Truth, however, is more mysterious than it appears.
If the nature of soul is bliss, then why would we be looking for bliss? If bliss is inside you, then no one can take it out. You can cover it from the outside, but it is still inside of you. It can be covered, but you cannot make it unavailable to itself. Soul does not know what happiness is. If it did, it would not do what it is doing now…Jiva does not have ananda in it. You get ananda – you get the seed that comes from the outside. The soul never knew God, otherwise, why would it come here?
