In Chapter 1, we saw that Duryodhan was feeling insecure about his prospects and Arjun was feeling overwhelmed at the thought of killing his kinsmen.

In Chapter 2, Lord Krishna allays Arjun’s concerns about killing his kinsmen and the resultant sin.

Krishna starts with exhortation that people will think that Arjun is a coward if he does not fight.  However, Arjun is not moved, he states that it would be better to die then to fight.  He believes that it is better to beg and survive then to kill and enjoy the worldly pleasures.  He then surrenders to Krishna as his guru and seeks clarity.

Krishna then makes two arguments:

1. Since soul is imperishable, Arjun should not worry about killing it.  The body must perish and soul can never perish.  So what is there to worry.  That which exists can’t be destroyed and that which does not exist can’t be created. (this is somewhat akin to conservation of mass and energy). Precluding any questions about soul, Krishna states that the soul is imperceptible, inconceivable, immutable.  It is important to note that there is no proof or argument offered to establish that a soul like the one envisaged actually exists.  It is stated as the truth and on top of it is stated as something which is inconceivable by human mind.  A careful reader of this blog will want to question this assertion (see the post on Reason and Religion by Vivekananda).  However, it is an useful construct to minimize the importance of the material body.  And hence reduce the importance of material objects and comforts.

2. Krishna perceives that Arjun is worried about the sin that will accrue to him if he kills his elders and kinsmen.  He clarifies that when one acts without desiring the fruit of the action then neither the good or bad accumulates.  It is as if one can have action without any reaction. Krishna acknowledges that some people interpret veda in a way which marks actions as good or bad which result in sin or merit.  He clarifies that action done without desiring the fruit absolves one of the eternal cycle of action and consequence.  This is a subtle argument as it is trying to remove the fear of doing something like killing ones elders by making the action consequence-less.

Krishna also clarifies that this desire for merit or aversion to sin is another case of attachment which can cause several problems.  Attachment or aversion cause greed or fear.  Both of which cause anger.  Which causes delusion, resulting in corrupted memory of the truth.

So the best way is to create a connection with the Universal Consciousness and be guided by that instead of ones self centered objectives.  A person who is unmoved by happiness or sadness, victory or defeat, and is only driven by universal good will have the ability to focus his energies a lot more than someone who is constantly trying to optimize across many volatile objectives.