Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2 Verse 1

Verse 2.1 explained

Introduction

Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between Krishna and Arjun. This dialogue begins just before the war of Mahabharata is about to begin. On seeing his family in opposition, Arjun is gripped with fear and confusion and wants to run away, but Krishna convinces him to fight and tells Arjun why he today raise his weapons to kill his brothers and relatives in this war.

Bhagavad Gits teaches us how to live life!

The core message of the Bhagavad Gita is considered very powerful for it can fundamentally transform the way you live your life. Bhagavad Gita is also called a summary of Vendantic Knowledge or simply ancient Knowledge.

Bhagavad Gita is crystallized form of the Hindu thought.

Bhagavad Gita is 700 verses long, spread across 18 chapters. Here we will understand Verse 1 of Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita.

Commentary

Krishna is being referred to as Madhusudan by Sanjay. But why?

The name by which Sanjay calls Krishna is symbolic. In fact, all names used in Bhagavad Gita are symbolic and can be interpreted in many ways.

Madhusudan literally means the one who destroyed Madhu.

Krishna is an avatar of Bhagavan Vishnu. It is said that Bhagavan Vishnu killed a demon named Madhu, who along with his brother Kaitabha had stolen the Vedas from Brahma. Vishnu thus protected Vedas from destruction, thus preserving knowledge in this universe.

There is another interpretation.

Madhu means honey. Honey is sweet and all animals, especially humans are drawn towards sweetness. This is a scientific fact. The reason is that consuming anything sweet stimulates the same parts of your brain, as a drug like Cocaine does. Thus humans are naturally drawn towards sweet food and develop an addiction to it and honey has been the most ancient symbol of sweetness on this planet earth.

Honey here represents the Ego. Just like sweet honey, Humans are addicted to their Ego. Krishna is not being referred to as the destroyer of Honey, rather he is being referred to as the destroyer of the human Ego!

In fact, the core message of Gita is to kill one’s ego by gaining knowledge.

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