THIS SESSION #18 IN THE GITA FROM ZERO SERIES:
Gita Chapter 1, Texts 1-12
We are now beginning the actual Bhagavad-gītā with Chapter 1. These first 12 Verses of the Gita, drop us into the setting of the book. Sañjaya is speaking to Dhṛtarāṣṭra about the upcoming battle. Then the scene shifts to Duryodhana who evaluates both armies. Starting off, Gita is giving us a word painted visualization of the scene, then we will hear the philosophy.
Duryodhana is confident of victory, but soon his confidence will be shattered. He assesses first the Pāṇḍava army and then his own. His confidence lies in the fact that Bhīṣmadeva is on his side. The fact that Krishna as the Supreme Lord is on the other side does not register with him.
Free Will is the first philosophical topic that I will discuss in these sessions, because based upon it, all sense of good/bad, moral/immoral and laudable/ignoble are predicated. Without Free Will, nothing in our modern world makes sense and yet there are some intellectuals who do not have any understanding of it. They suppose that we only “imagine” that Free Will exists. However, our entire civilization has always been based upon the fact that people have the ability to choose between right and wrong. All of our common sense judgements in law and politics are based on this. If Free Will didn’t exist, then there would be no meaning in having a police force or law courts. Everything would be allowable because, lacking Free Will, all types of human behavior would simply be the result of predefined chemistry of the brain or social conditioning and nothing more.
Gita From Zero: BG1.1-12, BGZ-000018 03/22/2023
