NOTE:
Read the Introduction to the work so you understand the back story. This version is only a small sampling from
the larger work, and the Gita itself
is a small part of a much longer work, the Mahabharata.
Answer
TWO of the following…
1.
In Chapter One, what moral dilemma does Arjuna have? What does he not understand about the laws of the Earth and how
does he come to a very modern definition of what seems ‘evil’ to him about war
and death?
2.
Chapter Two consists of Krishna’s response to Arjuna, which lays out some of
the basic tenets of Hindu philosophy. Why
does Krishna tell him that “If you turn from righteous warfare,/your behavior
will be evil,/for you will have abandoned both/your duty and your honored
name”?
3.
How does this work distinguish between the earthly and the spiritual natures of
man? If the world is full of
“sense-objects,” then how is man to rise above them and still do his duty? How does Krishna explain this to Arjuna—and
to us? Hint: what does the concept of
“yoga” have to do with this?
4. The Bhagavad Gita is
poetry, and like poetry, uses the language of metaphor to explain the natural
and supernatural world. REMEMBER: a
metaphor compares one idea to another idea, and often a very different idea
(for example, time is money; love is a battlefield). Find a metaphor that Krishna uses to explain something divine and
explain how this works…what does this image show us about an abstract idea we
might not otherwise understand?
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