Krishna and Arjuna on the eve of the final Battle

(From Mahabharata)

On the eve of the great Mahabharata battle, Arjuna asked his charioteer to drive their
chariot out to the front line so he could look over the opposition he must face the next
day. As he looked at his foes, he recognized his favorite teacher, Drona, and his beloved
grand uncle, Bhishma, and many other relatives and friends. Horrified to realize that he
must kill the very people he loved, he threw down his bow and arrow and told Krishna he
would not fight.

Krishna gave Arjuna numerous reasons to fight. He told Arjuna “You must fight or it will
look like you are a coward, and the people will say you were afraid to fight. You are a
prince, and you must set a good example for other people in the kingdom. If the prince
refuses to fight, who else can be counted on to enter the battle?”

Remember, he said, it is your dharma. “You are a warrior, and a warrior must fight.
You'll build up good karma if you fight, because there is nothing better for a warrior than
a just cause for which to fight.” He continued, “A person who is born must die, and a
person who dies will be reborn; the wise do not grieve over that. Dying is like leaving
aside worn-out garments, only instead of garments, one is leaving aside a worn-out
body.”

Further, Krishna said, if you kill Drona, Bhishma and your cousins in battle, you enable
them to build good karma, so you are really helping them.

Krishna then discussed moksha, the ultimate aim of life. “If one experiences moksha, he
breaks the chains of samsara and rejoins Brahman and is not reborn. There are four yogas
or methods to achieve moksha. One method is the yoga of meditation. Another is the
yoga of knowledge. These are the methods that traditionally only Brahmins follow. But
there are two other methods for achieving moksha that anyone might follow: the yoga of
holy indifference and the yoga of devotion.

The yoga of holy indifference is called karma yoga. "You must be indifferent to the fruits
of your actions," he told Arjuna. "You have a right to the deeds, never to the fruits. If you
can perform your deeds but are holy-indifferent to the results of your actions, you will not
build up any karma and you will not be reborn. Fight because you are a warrior, but don't
mind what happens or who wins. On action alone be thy interest, never on its fruits."

A fourth method for reaching moksha was the yoga of devotion or bhakti yoga. “Be
devoted to me,” said Krishna. “If you perform each act with your mind on me alone,”
Krishna promised, “you will experience moksha. Devotion alone holds the key.”

Arjuna was still not convinced. Krishna continued. “There can be no blame for law-
minded action, if you act with the proper dispassionate attitude. You must do the right
thing, and be heedless of the consequence.”
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Arjuna said, “Krishna, all those people are going to die. I will not be responsible for their
deaths.”

“Quite right,” said Krishna.

“What do you mean?”

Krishna explained. “We act as instruments of dharma. Everybody on this field today is
working out karmic dramas that extend back through lifetimes upon lifetimes. You and I,
my best true friend, have been preparing for this battle for hundreds of lifetimes. I
remember every one of them. You don’t.”

Arjuna studied his friend. “Krishna, who are you?”

And there was a flash of light, bright as a thousand suns, and Arjuna saw Krishna’s
cosmic form as Narayana, one of the great gods. There, all at once, were all of the planets
and all of the stars and all of the gods and all of the demons and spirits, gandarvhas and
apsaras, all of the sages and saints, all of the priests and warriors, all that is and all that
ever was and all that will be. Arjuna saw, and felt, endless perfect love swelling to fill
everything that Krishna had become. And he saw all the gory deeds that were ever done
and the carnage that must come with time; he saw Krishna tall as mountains, black as
night, his eyes blazing as he waded through rivers of blood, the mangled corpses of
Duryodhana and his brothers dangling from his bloody jaws.

“Krishna, stop!” Arjuna fell to the chariot floor, his head in his hands.

“But you see how it is, Arjuna,” said Krishna, as he helped his friend up. “You cannot
kill them, because they are dead already; their own actions have doomed them. You
cannot be responsible for their deaths, because each one is responsible for his own death.
In each lifetime, each one does what he has to do, and if he does it selflessly, in love of
me, without regard for gain or loss, he may come finally to rest in my perfection and be
free of the cycles of action and death. You are a warrior. You must fight. And you will
bear the pain of action because you will be steadfast in your love of me.”
“Let us continue,” said Arjuna, and he sounded his great conch Devadatta.

(Inputs from http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/lessplan/l000059.htm and

http://www.wmblake.com/stories/mahabharata/gita.htm )

[Note: Arjuna followed Krishna’s advice and fought.]

Assignment: What is Krishna’s broad persuasion strategy? Does it work? Why?

Why not? How does Krishna overcome Arjuna’s resistance?