The Truth About Heaven & Dharma in Gita || Acharya Prashant (2025)

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]So my question is from Bhagat Gita chapter 2 verse number 37. Either be slain on the battlefield and go to [music] the celestial abboards or you will gain victory and enjoy the kingdom of earth. Therefore arise with determination oh son of counti and prepared to fight. Correct. So my question is that what is swer here? It has to [music] be seen in context. You see chapter one of the Bhagat Gita Vishad is all about Arjun narrating his own concepts.

[00:00:28]And what are Arjun's concepts? Arjun is a great believer in Lok Dharma. It's only in the first chapter or mostly in the first chapter [music] that Arjun comes up with his side of the story. And then the remaining 17 chapters are to prove that these things that you believe in the varnasta, this attitude towards women, this attitude towards uh your brothers from the other vernas which loosely translates into cast today and your deep belief in superstition and it is to rebut this problem that the entire Bhagat Gita is spoken. Bhagwat Gita is a great rebellion against Lok Dharm against the popular social culture.

[00:01:16]Namaste achar my name is Prashant. I am PhD first year student in material senior department. So my question is from Bhagwat Gita chapter 2 verse number 37. So it says Lovely. So, Sri Krishna is saying to Arjuna, I >> I'll translate it for you. Okay, you translate. Yes.

[00:01:42]>> Uh, if you fight, you will either be slain on the battlefield and go to the celestial abboards or you will gain victory and enjoy the kingdom of Earth.

[00:01:52]Therefore, arise with determination, oh son of Ki, and prepare to fight.

[00:01:56]>> Right.

[00:01:57]>> So, my question is that what is swer here? lie great thank you sir it has to be seen in context you see chapter one of the Bhagat Gita Vishad yog is all about Arjun narrating his own concepts >> and what are Arjun's concepts Arjun is a great believer in Lok dharma huh the things that he says you have to understand them before you can have some real perspective on the Gita because the remaining 17 chapters are a response to the first chapter It's only in the first chapter or mostly in the first chapter that Arjun comes up with his side of the story. At other places Arjun is either reacting or just just just uh requesting you please tell me more or saying no no what you are telling I don't believe in this. Why are you confusing me? He doesn't come across uh in in in detail. Only in chapter one do you find that Arjun is doing bulk of the talking. What does Arjun say? Arjun say I don't want to fight. Why? If I fight, if I fight then most of thehatria men will die, right? Because from across the the the subcontinent armies have assembled here, either that side or this side and it's going to be a battle to the last man.

[00:03:19]Everybody will die. And if everybody dies, what happens to the women?

[00:03:24]What happens to the women? You see, you see the women are young because these are young soldiers all of them and the women are young and all these shatria men will die. So the women will go to the lower mannas.

[00:03:39]Please understand where Arjun is coming from. In the middle of the battlefield, he is thinking about what will happen to the women. And it doesn't stop here. He says the women will go and mate with or marry the the other vernas. What he means is the lower ones, the so-called lower ones in Arjun's eyes.

[00:04:01]And out of that kind of meeting union, uh, world sunkers will be born. That's the word he uses. Word sunker. Born sunker. A kid born outside the prescribed rules of marriage.

[00:04:22]prescribed not by vant but by lok dharma h the dharma shastras dharma shastras do not come under shi so they do not belong to the league or dimension of vidan so that's a separate thing so these kids will be born first of all that's a very bad thing why should kids be born like that and the uh problem is now that our forefathers their jatmas their disembodied bodies are all floating around and they need to be offered uh water and uh other offerings in order to keep them happy and placated but they will not accept anything if these wankers offer them. So what will happen?

[00:05:12]The the jivvatmas of all our forefathers they will become unhappy and also they will remain hungry and thirsty. They'll not accept any offerings. And this is the problem that Arjun is narrating to Krishna. And it is to rebut this problem that the entire Bhagwat Gita is spoken.

[00:05:30]Bhagwat Gita is a great rebellion against Lok Dharm against the popular social culture.

[00:05:39]So the answer will be a prolonged one.

[00:05:40]You'll have to be patient.

[00:05:43]Another problem that he says is you know these are the people there and I am prepared to even even die for them. Even my guru is standing there.

[00:06:03]What will I do by gaining a kingdom by killing all of them? Now that's very peculiar because Krishna is standing next to Arjun and Arjun is saying my guru is lined up that side.

[00:06:20]Do you do you fathom the depth of ignorance? Krishna is standing next to Arjun and Arjun is saying my guru is there and how do I fight against them?

[00:06:32]Are you getting it? So social custom, inner fear, the body and the society both are being quoted as reasons for not taking up the battle.

[00:06:49]Both are being quoted as reasons for not taking up the battle. And then the remaining 17 chapters are to prove that these things that you believe in the wavasta the the women should not you see a peculiar attitude towards women here do you see that do you also see a peculiar attitude towards the so-called lowerers do you see that do you also see superstition here the Bhagat Gita is a is a stunning statement against all of these this attitude towards women. This attitude towards uh your brothers from the other vernas which loosely translates into cast today and your deep belief in superstition. That's what Bhagat Gita is for to demolish these social concepts.

[00:07:42]Unfortunately, even millennia after the Bhagat Gita was uttered or composed, the same things continue to exist in society. The same attitude towards women, the same attitudes towards other casts, the same prevalence of superstition and the same inner ignorance. Arjun will not say that I am I'm I'm I'm arrested paralyzed because of my physical attachments. He will not say he is talking of all these things and the same kind of mental superstition and physical attachments exist even today. That's why the Gita continues to have its relevance. Now how does Krishna begin to to explain Arjun [snorts] and uh and drive away uh all these random concepts from his mind? Chapter two is Sanyug the highest exposition of of knowledge.

[00:08:52]Krishna says he didn't intend probably if you look at the situation and if we say if we accept that it has at least a historical dimension to it h even if it's not accurately historically depicted if we accept that there is a historical dimension to it I don't think that in the battlefield or even near to the battlefield the narrator would have aimed to narrate 18 chapters you are in in the middle of a battle. You are not here to educate someone. It's not a particular asham. It's not a university where you are lecturing.

[00:09:33]So he probably wanted to finish it off fast. So he gives it his best shot right away early on. Chapter 2 is the highest and it fails on Arjun. Arjun says, "No, no, no. I don't understand anything. I don't agree. I'm not going to fight.

[00:09:51]This is not good.

[00:09:55]Krishna sees that. He sees a practical narrator. You see it's not succeeding on him. Chapter three things are diluted and the concept of karm comes in.

[00:10:06]Chapter two is all about realization.

[00:10:09]Chapter two he doesn't say this particular action you must embrace Arjun.

[00:10:16]Chapter three he starts talking of nishkam karm the level of action he says realization is presently not working on him he probably is right now not ripe enough so he talks of the level of action even that fails even that fails in fact Arjun starts saying you know if you say that's after uh Krishna educates him on on gan you know what Arjun says he says if gan is everything if realization is everything then why are you pushing me into this terrible battle and you say gan is the highest so now you have given me gan now let me go away I don't want to fight says you know it's complicated so then comes chapter four and in chapter four he says I'll have to get down to where Arjun is and Arjun is a firm believer in the worst the concept of being honorable, respectable, noble. So here we find Krishna using all these tools. He says if you don't fight, what will people say of you? You believe so much in the concept of jvatma and swan and ner.

[00:11:33]So why don't you fight and honorably proceed to swer if you die fighting h and then he says you know either agree to this or this or this. What are these three levels? These are the three levels of vant.

[00:11:52]The top level is paric level. At paric level dude nothing exists at all. So why are you so full of grief? Nobody's going to die because there is nobody.

[00:12:05]This Arjun refuses to understand. We are talking of chapter four and five here.

[00:12:09]Arjun refuses to understand the top-notch argument. The top-notch argument is that at the highest non-dual level, everything is an illusion. Nobody exists. So who are you mourning for?

[00:12:21]Nobody is the killer and nobody gets killed. Let spontaneous action unfold.

[00:12:26]Why are you so much in grief and guilt?

[00:12:28]Nothing. Arjun refuses. Then comes the vharic level. At the vharharic level there is just the nature the the prrati all this is there. All this is there sense that that that that imaginary thing called the ego and in nature in procriti birth and death are continuous.

[00:12:52]Waves arise waves fall.

[00:12:55]Trees are all the time shedding leaves and all the time new leaves are appearing on trees. So birth and death are a continuous process. So again there is no reason for grief.

[00:13:08]Arjun refuses to understand even this argument. H or probably he is understanding but he's so so full of attachment and so full of what the the social concepts the manetas the beliefs have been that he just doesn't want to act.

[00:13:24]Then Krishna gives this pratiphasik level argument you are ahatria. He has to tell him you are a chhatria because he does not understand that he is the atman the truth. He also refuses to understand that he is just one of this species where all are just like waves of the seas with no genuine material difference between them. If you look at the if you look at the ocean, waves are rising and falling and in some way every single wave has an individuality.

[00:14:00]H no wave is exactly alike other waves.

[00:14:03]Yet we know that fundamentally all waves are the same. Huh? So there thereby there is no reason to be to to grief the death of a particular wave because all waves are you know just just like Arjun refuses to buy even that. Then as a tactician as a raanitikar Krishna comes to where Arjun is standing he says fine you are not atman you're not even prai then you are ahatria right Arjun that's what you take yourself to be chhatria right fight because if ahatria does not fight then it is not honorable and noble for him you die fighting or you emerge victorious so it is in that context that the concept of swirk comes in that does not mean that Krishna is endorsing the concept of sorc and ner He is just bringing it down to Arjun's level getting it.

[00:14:55]And these arguments they follow each other one after the other. These verses they come right one after the other but one particular verse would be chosen selectively to prove that the Gita is what it is just not. Similarly when he says that I decide your uh I am the one who has decided based on your your your chetana karma. Then it is forwarded as an argument that the word vasta is divinely ordained. Whereas it is exactly the opposite. Krishna is saying it depends on your quality and your choices.

[00:15:40]It depends on you.

[00:15:43]Who am I?

[00:15:44]He does not say that I have said that you will be this, you will be that. He says you decide what you want to be, it's all yours. If you want to fall uh into a rut, that's your choice. If you want to fly there, you decide. Your nature is to fly, but you can turn yourself into an earthworm and just uh uh become a crawler.

[00:16:08]Getting it? Huh? So so whenever uh you find opishads, Gita any other scripture and not just an indic scripture even even stuff from outside or even philosophers including modern philosophers uh Russell Sart anybody when you find them being quoted quotations you must always be very skeptical of quotations are very very dangerous things because a quotation means that out of the entire work the entire over uh a writer or a speaker Somebody has selectively picked up two lines and is presenting them to you with some specific purpose. Be a reader. Be a reader. Don't be a quote hunter. You know, quote, see this quote, quotes are always suspicious, especially when they are not accompanied by references.

[00:16:59]Always ask for references. Where is it coming from?

[00:17:07]>> [music]