The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna

This part of the Gita lays out the battle, sets the stage if you will, for the lessons to come. The 17 discourses that follow look at the lessons we are to take.

The Bhagavad Gita opens at the beginning of a war between two sides of a family. The Pandavas and Kauravas grew up together, but the Kauravas were quite jealous of the Pandavas bravery and intelligence. They ended up cheating them out of land and possessions they owned, resulting in the Pandavas being in exile for 13 years. After the period of exile the Pandavas were to get their land back, but the Kauavas refused to give even so much as could be covered by the point of a needle!Duryodhana and Arjuna from the Kauravas and Pandavas respectively were sent to see Lord Krishna to seek out advice on going to war. As Arjuna was sitting at his feet when Krishna awoke and so was the first of the two men he saw, Krishna gave Arjuna a choice of having him by his side unarmed during a war or have the use of his great army. Arjuna without hesitation chose to have Krishna on his side. Krishna then becomes Arjuna's charioteer while going to war.At the very start of the war, Arjuna asks Krishna to place the chariot between the two sides of the family. On each side he sees his kin; fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers - on both sides! He becomes despondent and throws down his arms saying he does not wish to kill for the kingdom. He is completely confused about what to do and turns to Krishna for enlightenment. he ends by saying that it would be better for him to be killed by the Kauravas while unarmed and unresistant. He was overwhelmed with sorrow, feeling attachment to both sides of his family.If you are following along with my journey, here is the meditation for today: Healing light energy, full body scan guided meditation