| At the critical
moment when Arjuna saw before him all his dear kinsmen ranged against him in battle, he
grew faint of heart and was tempted to relinquish a great public duty on account of his
private sorrow. If he had been left alone, he would have retired from the battlefield, and
if he had done so, there would have been an end of the war, and the evil embodied in
Duryodhana and his allies would have triumphed. But this national calamity was-averted by Krsna who came to the rescue
of Arjuna
and discussed with him all the moral and metaphysical implications of human duties and
convinced him that, in the circum - stances in which he was placed, it was his duty to
fight regard less of consequences. Thus, incidentally, the Avatar summarizes for us all
the philosophical and the ethical teachings of the Upanisads. In fact, there is a popular
Verse, which aptly compares the Upanisads to cows, the Gita to milk Krishna
to a cowherd
and Arjuna to a calf. |
