Chapter 1 Lesson 4
You saw in the lesson (my note about Draupadi) that the Pandavas who were the better ones were addicted to the game of dice. What is remarkable in the Mahabharata is that characters are not black and white but shades of grey. Only in some cases the grey is almost black. Awareness of imperfection allows us to be less judgemental of others. Marguerite Theophil writes ‘This is not about being satisfied with mediocre or about condoning evil or inhumanity it is about facing reality and working with it rather than against it.
Working with ‘what is’ means to seek meaning within the absurd, peace within chaos, light within darkness, joy within suffering- without the need to deny the reality of absurdity, chaos darkness and suffering’.
Coming back to the Geeta,
It is interesting to note that Krishna first tries psychology to urge Arjuna to fight.
Krishna tells Arjuna that if he refuses to fight and flee from the battle , people will be justified in considering him a coward. On the other hand if he does his ‘dharma’ ie fights as a soldier, he will attain a high state (Could be that of a great hero or heaven)