(The setup in which the Gītā-teaching is imparted is the epic battle of Mahābhārata, fought between the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas. Arjuna, the Pāṇḍava, discovers the problem of saṃsāra in the battlefield. He surrenders to Lord Kṛṣṇa seeking a solution. Then follows the great teaching.
If one should get the Gītā-wisdom, one should go through some important phases in one’s life.
Firstly, one should discover the problem of saṃsāra, for which Gītā happens to be a solution. Unless one discovers the disease, one will not seek medicine.
Secondly, one should become possessed by a sincere longing (tīvramumukṣā) for freedom from saṃsāra. This alone can lead to committed and fruitful pursuit.
Thirdly, one should realize that one cannot solve this problem independently. The maximum that one can do, as a limited human being, is a rearrangement or a reshapement of the problem.
Finally, one should surrender to a guru seeking his guidance.
When discovers the śiṣya in one and surrenders to a guru, the ground is prepared for the Gītā-teaching to take place.
The entire first chapter and the first part of the second chapter are devoted to show these developments.) The problem of saṃsāra, as shown in the first chapter, can be said to be the problem of attachment (kṛpā or rāga), grief (śoka or viṣāda) and delusion (moha). When one is not happy with oneself, one has to seek external aids. This leads to dependence and attachment. Since the conditions of the depended factors are unpredictable, the very peace of mind of that person is in trouble. A disturbed mind can make only faulty judgements complicating the matters further. Thus a vicious cy-cle is created. This, in short, is the problem of saṃsāra.
Coming to the text, we find, in the first twenty verses, a vivid description of the armies arrayed for battle. After a brief instruction of Duryodhana to his commanders, Bhīṣma, Lord Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna, and others blow their conches, signaling the commencement of the bat-tle (1 to 20).
At this fateful moment, Arjuna commands Lord Kṛṣṇa, his char-ioteer, to place the chariot in the middle of the army to scrutinize the enemy-forces. The mischievous Lord brings the chariot in front of Bhīṣma and Droṇa and asks Arjuna to survey the army (21 to 25).
(Till now Arjuna was convinced that his cousins are unrighteous (23) and he, as a kṣatriya, has to fight the battle to establish righteous-ness.) In a moment of weakness, Arjuna slips down from reason to rela-tion. Instead of seeing the violators of dharma, he sees his beloved kith and kin. Naturally, Arjuna is overpowered by attachment. Then follow the twin offshoots of attachment viz. grief and delusion (26 to 30).
In the next five verses, we see Arjuna expressing his intense grief which shakes him completely. This indicates the extent of his attach-ment.
Veiled by attachment, his discriminative power becomes inopera-tive and he commits a series of false judgements. Interestingly enough, Arjuna even quotes the scriptures to support his unreasonable stand.
Thus, Arjuna gets caught up in delusion which is depicted from the 36th verse upto the end of the chapter (36 to 47).
In this way, Arjuna finds himself in the deep sea of attachment, sorrow and delusion (rāga, śoka, moha). Arjuna sincerely wants to get out of this problem. He thinks that solution is to drop the battle. But, one corner of his mind is not convinced by this. At the same time, he has not realized that the problem is too deep for him to solve indepen-dently. Hence he doesn’t surrender to Kṛṣṇa either. Thus caught up in a dilemma, Arjuna sits back on the chariot sorrowfully.
