In this post, we highlight a few aspects of the Bhagavad Gita and hypothesize why they are so. We note that our observations are based on intuition rather than study.
We observe that:
- Although the story of the Gita is recalled by Sanjaya as part of the Mahabharata, which is a Smriti, the Bhagavad Gita is told to an individual, Arjuna, who is professionally a warrior. It is not told to a group of people.
- It's told by Krishna, who is the charioteer.
- It's told on a battlefield, where there are a lot of people, but it is said in such a divine way that only Arjuna can hear it.
We believe that it is told in such a way because Arjuna, who is a warrior whose duty it is to fight for dharma, is in doubt about whether to fight or not, because his friends and family are his opponents. This knowledge of why he must fight in order to restore Nature's equilibrium, i.e., dharma, is realized at the individual level and not in groups. We believe that this happens by reflecting and meditating on what is happening around us, both of which are individual-focused activities.
Krishna acts as a charioteer, and not as a co-fighter, telling us that Nature guides the individual by taking them to the right places when they act on the path of dharma.
Even when in groups, divine knowledge is given at the individual level, as we wrote about before, that the source of knowledge is within, not outside.
Thus, we made a few observations and argued that the Bhagavad Gita emphasizes individual responsibility.