The Bhagavad Gita opens, dramatically, on a battlefield. Prince Arjuna is on the brink of an apocalyptic war that he doesn’t want to fight – and he turns in anguish to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, for answers to the fundamental questions of life.
But, as Easwaran point out, the Gita is not what it seems – it’s not a dialogue between two mythical figures at the dawn of Indian history. “The battlefield is a perfect backdrop, but the Gita’s subject is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage” to live a life that is meaningful, fulfilling, and worthwhile.
